Changes
by See For
Summary: Itachi was lonely. He met a friend and his life changed. Running away from fangirls and protecting his adopted sister were top priority, but Itachi decided to change all of that. [IxOC; Rating now M]
1. Chapter I: The Innocent

I'm replacing these chapters with better formatted text, better grammar, and a more extensive vocabulary. I'm sorry if you get plenty of alerts in your emails!

Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, then I would've made Itachi love me...

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**Changes**

**Chapter One**

**The Innocent**

Uchiha Itachi is six years old, and a very talented, yet lonely kid. His father was going to enroll him into the Ninja Academy soon, but he wanted some friends. Being the child prodigy of the town wasn't all that much fun, especially when you don't have any friends.

One day, the third Hokage went to visit Itachi's father. They seemed highly suspicious to Itachi, since they had to talk quietly in a separate room from the rest of the family, and they had to close the door shut. Unknown to them, Itachi had become so curious, since they did this quite frequently, that he had started to eavesdrop on them.

**_Itachi_**

'I hate it when father and Hokage-sama start to talk in that stupid room. I must find out what they're talking about!' I thought as I stuck after them and tried to hear what they were talking about. I heard father and Hokage-sama talking about an orphaned child prodigy that was the same age as me. 'I wonder if he would be my friend...' I guess I had wondered about all the possible things that we could possibly be doing, and my mind and attention wandered off for so long that the door I was leaning on opened and I fell onto the floor in front of the Hokage-sama and my father. 'Uh-oh…'

"Itachi, what are you doing?" father asked me.

"Uhh...I...uhh...was wondering why you keep walking off and talking secretly in a different room, that's all," I stuttered.

"Oh, well, we didn't want to wake up your baby brother, Sasuke," father replied.

"Oh." I had guessed it was a reasonable explanation...I looked up to see that father and Hokage-sama whispering about something to each other.

"Say, Itachi, do you want to meet a new friend?" father asked me.

"Yes, of course!" I definitely wanted a friend, I was felt really lonely, and I could sure spend time with someone out of the house. It sucked to be the child prodigy of the town! It wasn't any fun, and it made me extra lonely.

"Well, you can come by my place tomorrow if you like, and I'll introduce a new friend to you," Hokage-sama said.

"Yay!" I bowed and ran off happily to tell mother about the great news.

For the rest of the night, I was wondering what my new friend would want to do. 'Is he really active? Would he want to play tag? Or is he really shy and calm?' I kept asking myself a lot of questions about my new friend. I even stayed up halfway through the night thinking about him. It was so late that I decided that I should get some sleep or I would look really shabby the next morning when I meet my new friend.

**The next morning…**

I was up not much later than the break of dawn. I was so excited that I barely got any sleep the night before, but I was so energetic that it didn't seem to bother me. My baby brother Sasuke kept looking at my strangely at breakfast, but I couldn't blame him because it was the first time that I ever acted like that in my life! Even mother and father kept staring at my strangely, but I didn't seem to have noticed...

"Do you think that we should tell Itachi now?" mother whispered.

"Nah, I think we should keep it as a surprise," father whispered back.

I was so excited that I didn't even notice that my parents were whispering to each other because I was hurriedly eating my cereal. Before I even knew it, I was finished my food, and I put all my dishes away into the sink. Then I quickly slipped on my sandals, and ran out the door.

A few seconds later, I walked back in and wondered why my parents were still sitting at the table. "Uhh…father, are we going now?" I asked curiously.

"Slow down Itachi! I still have to finish my breakfast too!" father chuckled.

"Oh. Sorry." I leaned against the open door, letting the gentle morning breeze blow through my hair.

After a few minutes, father had finished, and gotten up from his seat. I looked up at the sound of his chair scraping against the floor.

"Ok Itachi, let's go!" he said.

"Yay!" I ran out the door, looking back every once in a while to see whether father was still in sight as I walked to Hokage-sama's place. After a ten minute walk or so, we arrived at the front doors of Hokage-sama's place. It took us a while to get in, but we did manage to get there quick enough before I burst with excitement.

"Good morning, Hokage-sama!" father and I said in unison, except I sounded more cheerful and excited.

"Good morning to you both!" Hokage-sama smiled down at me. "So are you anxious to meet a new friend, Itachi?" he asked me.

"Yes." I tried to hide how excited I was, except it sounded more like I was laughing.

"Tsumi, you can come out now," Hokage-sama said.

I was shocked to see that a girl stepped into the room. "Itachi," said father, "meet your new friend, Tsumi."

Tsumi stepped forward, and looked just as shocked to see me. We stood there for a while, staring at each other as if we didn't know that another gender existed.

"H-hi," I said shyly as I looked down. I felt myself blushing, because it seemed to be the first time that I ever talked to a girl my age.

"Hi," Tsumi said.

"Well, you two can run along now," father said. "Hokage-sama and I have a lot of work to do, so you can come back to meet us here around dusk."

"Yes, father," I said. I turned around and walked out the door, eyeing the girl strangely as she walked beside me.

We walked out of the building, and then down the street, slowly and silently. I guessed I should break the silence, so I tried to start conversation.

"Umm...what do you want to do?" I asked her politely. She looked up from the ground.

"Don't know." Her answers were short. She didn't seem like a person that liked to talk; she was just like me. "So I hear that you're supposed to be really smart, and the child prodigy of the Uchiha clan, eh?" she asked me.

"I guess...it's not all that fun though, I never actually had any real friends," I confessed.

"I know how you feel." I looked up at her with a confused expression. "I'm supposed to be a child prodigy too, but I don't know where I came from, or what I'm supposed to do. I was orphaned and discovered by Hokage-sama."

"Oh." I guess there was more to this girl than I expected from an ordinary girl. 'Maybe we could get along?' I wondered. "So...what do you want to do?" I asked her again.

"Do you want to hang out around the park? I really want to know more about you," she said sweetly.

"Uhh...s-sure?" For the first time in my life, I stuttered, and I felt my face turn red.

So we walked to the park, and I saw Kakashi-san running off on another mission, I guess. "Wouldn't it be great to become a shinobi?" I asked Tsumi.

"I always wanted to be one, I mean, I don't really have anything else to do in my life," she replied.

"Oh." And I always thought that becoming a shinobi was just a job and for fun. I never thought that someone would actually become one to live off it.

So we arrived at the park after a bit of silence, though we didn't really do anything for the next two hours or so because we were too busy talking and finding out more about each other. I treated her to some ramen for lunch with some of the money that my parents gave me, and then we were off running around on the streets of Konoha, hand in hand, laughing and having the time of our lives.

At the end of the day, we walked back to Hokage-sama's place where Tsumi was staying. Father and Hokage-sama were already waiting for us at the doors, but looked rather surprised to see that Tsumi and I were already the best of friends as we walked towards them holding hands.

"Well, looks like you two got along well," father mused.

"Definitely," Hokage-sama added.

Tsumi and I just smiled back at them, still holding hands, which father and Hokage-sama seemed to have noticed. I watched curiously as the two of them started to whisper to each other.

"Well, Tsumi, we should let Itachi and his father go now," Hokage-sama said to Tsumi.

"Yes, sir," Tsumi said. She turned to me and kissed me on the cheek. I felt my body heat rise as my face turned a deep shade of crimson. Father and Hokage-sama chuckled. "Bye," Tsumi said to me.

"B-b-bye," I stuttered back to her, still stunned at what just happened. Tsumi let go of my hand and smiled at me as father lead me back to our home.

"Will I ever see Tsumi again?" I asked father eagerly.

"Of course you will. Hokage-sama and I have arranged that you two can go out and have fun again tomorrow, since we have some business to finish," father replied with a smile.

"Yay!" I cheered, earning a look of confusion from father. "Umm...never mind," I said as we walked back home.

For the rest of the night, I kept thinking about what Tsumi had done earlier before. 'I can't believe that she kissed me...even if it was on the cheek,' I kept thinking over and over for most of the night. 'And how we held hands...' everything kept reminding me about Tsumi. 'Could I...no, that can't be it, she's just my friend...' I trailed off. 'But it has only been one day...what am I thinking?' I lay down on my bed and pulled the sheets up to my chin. 'Oh right, I get to see Tsumi tomorrow...' I caught myself thinking about my new friend again. 'Damn, why do I keep thinking about her? Could it be...' I smiled to myself and closed my eyes to slowly drift off to sleep, waiting for the new day.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter II: The Truth

Here are some facts that you might want to know about the current OC:

Name: Hayashibara Tsumi

Age: Six

Gender: Female

Eyes: onyx coloured

Hair: raven black and falls half-way down her back

Physical description: She's as tall as Itachi, not too skinny, not too fat. She wears black sandals, a blood-red coloured t-shirt and a pair of black shorts. Her long hair is tied back in a pony-tail at all times to stay out of her way.

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**Changes**

**Chapter Two**

**The Truth**

The next morning came by quickly, and Itachi woke up with a start. He rubbed his eyes as the sun shone through the window near his bed, illuminating the room. He yawned and stretched his arms as he got out of bed to wash up. After a bit, he sat down at the kitchen table for breakfast.

"Good morning father, mother and little Sasuke," he said as he smiled at his baby brother who was kicking around furiously in his high chair, trying to escape its clutches.

"Good morning Itachi," his parents said as they busied themselves with work. Sasuke was trying to feed himself with a spoon, but kept on slapping his food all over his face.

Their father chuckled. "Sasuke is getting really restless nowadays..."

"Yes! It's annoying though, always having to clean up after him," the kind lady teased the baby. She looked up at Itachi, who was eating his toast. "So, I've heard that you've grown to like this new girl, Tsumi, is it?" she asked Itachi, whose face turned a little pink when his mother mentioned his new friend.

"Yeah, she's really nice," he managed to say to cover for himself. He looked up from his food to see that his parents were looking at each other smiling, and he didn't like the idea of it. "Is there something I need to know...?" he wondered out loud.

"Oh? No. We were just talking about some business with Hokage-sama, that's all," his father replied quickly.

"Oh, ok then." Itachi still didn't quite believe what his parents keep telling him, but he stuck with it anyway, for he didn't want to look like a nosy little kid. However, his parents seemed to have picked up on this, but didn't say furthermore about it.

A short while later after Itachi and his father had finished their breakfast, they headed out to the Hokage's place. When they got there, they were greeted by the already waiting Hokage and Tsumi. When Tsumi saw Itachi walking beside his father towards her, she ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck, gave him a hug.

"Good morning Itachi!" she said happily with her arms still wrapped around his neck.

"G-g-good m-morning Ts-tsumi," he stuttered back. 'What's this feeling that I get when I'm around Tsumi?'

"Well you two run along now," ushered his father, "and make sure you'll be back here by dusk."

"Yes father," Itachi said as Tsumi pulled him away, hugging his arm with both her arms, and her head on his shoulder.

Uchiha-san sighed. "Young love these days," he said as we walked away. The Hokage just chuckled.

So Tsumi and Itachi walked off, hand in hand as if they were dating.

They were walking down the street and got quite a few stares from people walking down the street too.

"Umm, Tsumi, do you really have to hug my arm like that?" he finally brought up the courage to ask.

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I didn't even notice..." She finally let go of his arm, and the colour immediately drained from Itachi's face a little.

**_Itachi_**

We walked down the street furthermore and spent the day walking around. Somehow, after a while, I found that we were holding hands again, though I can't quite remember who grabbed whose hand first...

By the end of the first week together, the two of us were such close friends that it we were almost inseparable from each other. She even slept over once and said that Sasuke was kind of cute, but not as cute as me...I remember that, I was blushing like crazy! And when we were watching those horror movies...

**Flashback…**

I was looking around my room to make sure that everything was neat and organized. When I was satisfied, it was as if on cue that Tsumi turned up for a sleep-over; I mean, staying Hokage-sama's place wouldn't be all that fun. Anyway, I ran down the hall to open the door for Tsumi.

"Itachi!" she smiled and gave me a hug and I returned it. I felt eyes on us as we embraced, which was a normal thing for us now, since we did it so often. Well, I could hear mother and father whispering to each other about something, but I wasn't so sure what they were talking about because I was too busy showing Tsumi around the house.

"You have a nice place, Itachi," she had said to me. I showed her to my room and she put down her stuff, and started to look around. She took in the sight of my room, and sighed. "I wish I had a family and place of my own," she sighed. I heard movement on the other side of the door, and my head shot up to see what was there, though I didn't see anyone or anything there, and continued to talk to Tsumi.

When we went to the kitchen for dinner, Sasuke was already eating his dinner in his highchair. Once again, he was slapping his food onto his face, but this time it was closer to his mouth. 'Boy this kid learns fast,' I thought.

When Tsumi caught sight of the little baby sitting there trying to feed himself, she squealed with delight. Sometimes she makes me wonder if she's really a teenager in disguise, or really six years old.

"He's so cute!" she squeaked again, and started to play around with Sasuke. I laughed as my baby brother put on a pout as if he wanted Tsumi to leave him alone. "But, of course, he's nowhere near as cute as you are," she said to me with a wide grin on her face. I didn't know what I could've done, so I just stood there, my eyes wide, jaw almost dropped down, and my face was, once again, a deep shade of crimson. I watch in almost horror as she went into a giggle-fit and let Sasuke finish eating his food. "What? It's true you know," she said and winked at me as we sat down for dinner. I think my parents may have caught onto this as they shot each other shifty glances during dinner.

After dinner, it started to feel quite awkward being around Tsumi because we were huddled together on the couch in front of the TV, watching some mild horror movies of ANBU going out on missions. At some scary scenes, she would huddle even closer to me, and burry her face into my shirt until it was over. Then, after a while, she fell asleep while hugging me with her head on my shoulder through a boring scene. 'I guess she does look kind of cute,' I had thought when I started to look closely at her when she was asleep. 'And kind of pretty, too...wait, what am I thinking?' I stopped myself as I carried her off to bed when the whole night all I did was glance at Tsumi's sleeping form. After a bit, she seemed to have been having nightmares, and then crawled over to me.

"Itachi? Are you awake?" she whimpered.

"Yes Tsumi?"

"I'm scared," she whispered as if she didn't want to be heard by anyone.

"Scared of what?"

"I'm scared of the movies of course! Silly Itachi, you seem quite dim when you're half asleep," she giggled.

"Well, who wouldn't be?" I groaned.

"You." I kicked off my covers and sat up. Tsumi did the same. I went to lean my back against one of the four walls, and Tsumi came and huddled beside me, her head resting on my shoulder. The scent of her washed hair filled my nose. Almost instantly, she fell asleep, and I grabbed my sheets and covered Tsumi and myself with it to keep us warm.

I slept for maybe a few hours, but it was hard to get any sleep with your best friend sleeping beside you.

In the morning, when the morning light crept through my windows and into my room, mother opened the door to wake us up, but only found the two of us with our backs against the wall, and Tsumi's head resting on my shoulder as I was reading a scroll.

I held my finger up to my lips. "Shh mother! You'll wake Tsumi up!" I whispered quietly to her. She smiled and left the room, closing the door behind her.

**End of flashback**

'I never thought that my first sleepover would be like that. Especially with Tsumi...' My thought trailed off and I thought of when I was watching Tsumi sleep, and how I had thought that she looked cute. 'Maybe I do...no, that can't be right! A great shinobi doesn't let his feelings get in the way! But this time...I...really can't deny it.' I sighed as I lay in my bed, staring up at my ceiling. I sighed again. "Tsumi...I love you," I whispered out loud. I couldn't believe myself – I actually said that! 'I guess that's the truth that I've been denying from myself for this last while...' I slowly drifted off to sleep with the thoughts of Tsumi in my head.

**TBC**


	3. Chapter III: The Unexpected News

**Changes**

**Chapter Three **

**The Unexpected News**

After almost two weeks since they met each other, Uchiha Itachi and Hayashibara Tsumi were definitely the best of friends. One day, Itachi's father had approached Itachi and Tsumi as they were playing outside the Uchiha residence.

"Itachi, can you come over for a bit?" he asked his son.

"Sure father!" Itachi walked over to his father, who had sat down on a bench. Itachi sat down beside him and wondered what he was going to say.

"Remember how I said that I was going to enroll you into the Ninja Academy?" his father said.

"Yes."

"Well, I already enrolled you, and you're going to start your classes in one week's time."

"Yay!" Itachi was definitely happy, and he looked over at Tsumi and smiled. She returned the smile, and approached him.

"Say, do you know if Hokage-sama enrolled me too?" Tsumi asked Itachi's father.

"I...don't know," he said. Tsumi's smile quickly faded into a frown. Itachi put his arm around her, and tried to cheer her up.

"Don't worry Tsumi! You can ask Hokage-sama when you get back tonight! I'm sure that he enrolled you – you'll make a great shinobi."

"Thanks Itachi." Tsumi managed to smile.

Itachi's father watched the pair and smiled to himself. Watching his son and his best friend lightened his day. 'Reminds me of myself when I was younger...sort of.'

At the end of the day, Itachi and his father walked Tsumi back to the Hokage's place. The Hokage was already waiting for them at the door. Tsumi ran right up to him.

"Hokage-sama, did you enroll me into the Ninja Academy?" she asked him at once. You could tell from the look in her eye that she really wanted to go. The Hokage smiled.

"Yes, Tsumi, I did enroll you into the Ninja Academy."

Tsumi jumped up and down with happiness and went to tell Itachi the great news. When he found out, he was quite happy himself because now his best friend would be in the same class as him.

Itachi's father and the Third smiled at each other. "Do you think we should tell them the news now?" the Third whispered.

"Sure, why not?" Itachi's father whispered back. He cleared his throat and looked up. Itachi and Tsumi stopped cheering, laughing, and talking, and they looked up and looked at Itachi's father.

"Yes father?" Itachi asked.

"So...you two are really close friends, right?"

"Yes..." Itachi and Tsumi were wondering why his father was asking such a question when it was so obvious to the world!

"Well, Itachi, how would you like it if your mother and I adopted Tsumi into our family?"

Itachi's face lit up in an instant. At the time, it seemed like the best present that he could possibly ask for.

"Definitely!" Itachi cried as Tsumi stood there in tears of happiness.

"Thank you!" she said as her tears kept pouring out uncontrollably, and she ran up and hugged Itachi's father.

Itachi, who also seemed terribly happy, ran up and hugged his father as well. 'This has got to be the happiest moment of my life...'

"Though it's only temporary until we can find Tsumi's real family," their father added, but Itachi and Tsumi didn't seem to have heard since they were so happy and excited.

The Third watched them with a smile across his face. "Good-bye Tsumi! I hope you find happiness with your new family," he said.

Tsumi stopped him before he turned around to return to his home. "Thanks for your hospitality."

"You're certainly welcome," he replied, and walked off to his home.

"So, father, is this the business that you've been working on with Hokage-sama?" Itachi seemed to have read his father's mind.

"Yes, Itachi, that's what we were doing. We wanted to keep it a surprise for later, but since this was such an occasion, I thought that I should break the news sooner than expected."

"Umm…what about my stuff?" Tsumi asked.

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, we moved you into an empty room already."

"Which empty room?" Itachi wondered.

"The room that Hokage-sama and I were in when you were eavesdropping on us. It used to be a guestroom, but we really didn't need one so we renovated it." Itachi's father looked down at Tsumi and smiled. "You can call me father if you want to."

"Sure, father!" Tsumi smiled back, and Itachi as lost in his own dream world...

"Umm, Itachi, home is that way," His father pointed in the direction opposite to the one that Itachi was walking in.

"Huh? Oh." He was obviously clueless.

"So from now on," his father continued, "you're officially Uchiha Tsumi; you have two brothers, and parents."

"Yes father!" Tsumi said again.

'I hope this doesn't ruin their friendship,' their father thought. 'Or their love for each other. I just hope that I did the right thing before things become chaotic...'

**The next morning…**

Tsumi was awake before dawn. She was up making breakfast for the rest of her family. She sighed.

**_Tsumi_**

I felt myself let out a sigh. 'Now that I'm in the same family as Itachi, I'll have to stop loving Itachi the way that I did before, now that we're siblings...' I guess there was a good and bad thing about this adoption.

I finished making breakfast, and I cleaned up. As if on cue, mother and father walked lazily into the dining room and gasped.

"Ts-tsumi, did you make this all by yourself?" mother gasped.

"Yes mother. When I was living alone, I learned to cook for myself before Hokage-sama found me."

"Oh...well, let's see how good it is!" father sat down and was about to try the food until someone was heard thudding down the hall. We all looked at the door to see baby Sasuke crawling into the room.

'Wow, this kid learns amazingly fast,' father seemed to be thinking as Sasuke was trying to climb up into his highchair.

I walked over and picked him up and placed him into his highchair, earning a pout from him. He obviously didn't like the idea of always having people doing things for him, but it was rather dangerous for him to attempt climbing up into his chair in his small little form.

Suddenly, there was a loud bang that erupted through the house.

"Itachi! Is that you?" father yelled. He got up from his chair and went to see what was going on. "I'll come back and try your food after I'm done," he said to me and I nodded.

Mother, however, didn't even bother to go check to see what the huge racket was, so she took several bites into her food – scrambled eggs, a nicely cooked bagel, and well stirred coffee. She looked up at me.

"Tsumi...this is delicious!" she exclaimed. I smiled, feeling very happy that mother was proud of my cooking, even though I was only six years old and it was still dangerous for me to be cooking food.

Father walked back into the room. "So, what was the big deal?" mother asked him.

"Oh, nothing much, Itachi just fell off his bed and then a few scrolls fell onto his head." He chuckled.

I gasped. "Is he ok?" I asked anxiously. I still didn't want anything to happen to my Itachi, even though he was my brother now.

"Oh, don't worry Tsumi, Itachi's a hard-headed kid; he'll be perfectly fine," mother said.

Either way, I just went to check on Itachi anyway. I walked down the hall to his room. "Itachi, are you ok?" I called from outside his door. I didn't hear a reply, or anything going on in the room, so I opened the door to see if he was ok.

What I saw was a different Itachi than I normally saw and knew. This Itachi was sitting at his desks with earplugs in his ears, reading scrolls, reference books, and taking notes on stuff he read. The room was entirely messy with papers, garbage, etc. I walked up to him.

"Itachi?" He didn't seem to have heard me. "Itachi?" I said slightly louder. He still had no reaction. I pulled out his earplugs. "_Itachi_?" I yelled into his ear, and he screamed, not having known that I was beside him.

"Ts-tsumi? W-what are you d-doing in h-here?" He sounded slightly shaken up from the loud noises in his ear.

"Are you ok?" I asked him anxiously.

"Yeah, why?"

"What was that loud bang earlier?"

"Oh, I just fell out of my bed and a few heavy scrolls hit me in the head, that's all."

"What?" I gasped. "Are you ok? Does it hurt? Where did they land on you?"

"Honestly, I'm fine Tsumi!" He sounded annoyed.

"Oh. Sorry." I started to blush a bit. "This isn't the normal cute Itachi that I know..." I gasped. I didn't think I actually said that out loud!

"What do you mean by 'the normal cute Itachi that I know'?" he asked me.

"Umm...well, you room's messy, unlike the last time I was over for that sleepover..."

"Oh, I just cleaned my room up before you came."

"And usually you wouldn't have earplugs in your ears to block out noise," I continued.

"Well, that's because you usually don't see me studying."

"And…umm…you also aren't that mean and cold to me," I said to conclude. Itachi remained silent.

"That's because the Itachi that you knew wasn't the normal Itachi before I met you. When I was first introduced to you, I was shy and felt emotion for the first time in my life. But you see, before this friendship with you, I was always into my shinobi studies, never letting anyone get close to me. However, now that we're siblings and I don't have to wake up and leave the house every morning, I don't see a need to pay any attention to the rest of the people in the house, which I never really did, anyway..." His answer shocked me.

"Itachi...I had no idea!" I sobbed and instantly found the familiar spot on his shoulder. However, he pushed me off.

"Can you leave me alone for the next while? I'm busy preparing for the Ninja Academy," he growled at me. I was taken aback by that.

"S-s-sorry," I whispered and left the room, noticing that my cooking apron was still on. I went to my new room to change into some better clothes. I decided that I was going to get some better clothes with some money that Hokage-sama had left me.

I walked back to the kitchen to see that mother was washing the dishes from the breakfast that I made, and father was cleaning up after the tiny mess that Sasuke had made. 'Wow, he really does learn fast, that kid...' I thought. Last time I came over, he was still slapping food all over his tiny face, but now he's getting more accurate and is getting his spoon into his mouth.

"I'm going out," I called as I slipped my sandals on.

"Tsumi, hold up a sec!" mother called. She caught up with me as I was just about to walk out the door. "Here, take this," she said and she handed me the key to the house, and a little pouch of money. "Itachi gets an allowance too, so I figured that you should get one as well. Thanks for breakfast!" she said and she smiled at me.

"You're welcome," I replied and I walked out the door.

I walked down the street, feeling lonely. Usually, I'd be walking with Itachi, and I was getting used to it. I walked into a clothing store, and looked around for that outfit that Itachi said would look good on me when we were there last time. I finally found it, and it was on sale, so I thought that I should by it anyway, since I needed a few more selections of clothes. I smiled as I took the outfit off the rack. It was a black t-shirt that said "Forever Dreaming" on it in teal lettering. There were kapris that went with it that were teal with a black design at the bottoms. I brought it to the front desk, and I was just about to pay for it until I felt someone behind me.

"I'll pay for it." I looked up to see father smiling down on me. "That was a delicious breakfast you made," he said. "Your mother thought that you'd need some more clothes, so she sent me out after you.

"Oh." So father paid for my clothes, and when we left the store, there was an impatient Itachi leaning against a tree with his arms folded across his chest, tapping his foot.

"Itachi!" I exclaimed.

"He knew that you'd be here," father informed me.

I ran over to him. "We can go home now," I said to him.

"Why? I thought you wanted to go and buy more clothes," he replied.

"Well, you have to study, don't you? Besides, I think I should start to study a bit too...classes start next week." I smiled. He returned it.

"We'd better get going then," he said as he grabbed my hand and we started running home.

I smiled to myself. 'Now _this_ is the real Itachi that I know...'

**TBC**


	4. Chapter IV: The First Day

**Changes**

**Chapter Four **

**The First Day**

A week later, the courses at the Ninja Academy had begun. It was the first day, and all of the students were nervously waiting in the courtyard of the academy for the teacher, Kikei Itamashii.

The parents of the students stood with their children that were nervous and excited. Itachi and Tsumi's parents were standing with them until they met some friends and walked off to talk with them, leaving Itachi and Tsumi behind.

From out of the blue, another kid walked up to them; the boy standing firm and taking in what was happening; the girl standing mere centimeters away from him, perking up her ears. The kid had brought some friend with him, and they were going to prank Itachi and Tsumi. They had hidden behind a huge rock, and were just about to blow a horn between the pair until Tsumi said an unexpected "don't even think about it."

The boys that were taken by surprise jumped up into the air, and blew their cover. "Good one, Tsumi," Itachi said.

"Thanks, but I don't want to go deaf anywhere near soon."

"So, is it not the infamous Uchiha Itachi that's standing before me right now?" the ring leader said.

Itachi turned to face the boy that was fairly shorter than both him and Tsumi. He looked down at the boy.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he said. That was his instinctive way of greeting someone that he didn't want to meet.

"Kotowaza Mesu," Mesu said.

"Who's this fair lady you have here?" Mesu asked as he turned to Tsumi.

"She's my adopted sister," Itachi replied coldly. He was very protective of Tsumi because he knew that a lot of other boys would try to hit on her, and that was getting so annoying that it was annoying him, too.

Mesu walked up to Tsumi and took her hand. 'What the hell...?' both Tsumi and Itachi thought. He pulled her away from Itachi. "What is your name?" he asked her.

"That is none of your business," she replied coolly and shot Mesu a glance that felt like daggers were being stabbed into his back.

"Why do you hang out with your brother? He obviously doesn't deserve your attention..."

"Oh, and you do?" Tsumi was getting _very_ annoyed with this kid.

"Why of course!" The smirk on his face was wiped off with a slap from Tsumi. "What was that for?" he said.

"For harassment, that's what!" Tsumi was fuming, and it looked like there was going to be fire in her eyes very soon.

"Tsumi? Calm down!" Itachi grabbed Tsumi's shoulders and pulled her away. He was furious too, but he didn't want to cause any trouble on the first day.

"Well, well, well...is it not the child prodigy, Uchiha Itachi?" Itachi whipped his head around.

"Who are you and what do you want?" he said for the second time that day. He had turned around to face a fully grown man with a strong built.

"Kotowaza Tanto," he said. "I am Mesu's father."

"I noticed," Itachi said grimly. He pushed Tsumi aside so that she wasn't involced in this. He looked up to see that Mesu was hiding behind his father with a smirk on his face. 'Boy do I want to wipe that smirk off his face...'

"You're in big shit now!" Mesu mouthed to Itachi.

"Were you bullying my son?" Tanto demanded.

"No; he's the one that's trying to hit on my sister!" Itachi growled.

"And what's wrong with that? My son can do whatever he wants." Tanto sounded like he was trying to threaten Itachi.

"Not to my sister, no he can't!" Itachi clenched his teeth. Tanto walked over and pushed Itachi, but he didn't really do anything to Itachi.

"What's going on over here?"

Itachi's father walked over from his conversation with his friends. He saw Tanto and he immediately walked over to him.

"Tanto..."

"Yes?" Tanto said sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

"Don't you ever touch my son again," he hissed.

"Father, that bastard Mesu over there was trying to hit on Tsumi!" Itachi pointed at the Mesu that was hiding behind his father.

"The next time any of your Kotowaza clan members even _think_ about getting intimate or bullying our Uchiha clan members, you will have me to handle with," the Uchiha defended his clan.

"And you're supposed to be a problem for me?" the Kotowaza sneered.

"You'll be sorry you ever said that," the Uchiha growled back, but was cut off by the teacher that had walked out of the building.

"Good morning to all!" he said cheerfully. Tanto and Mesu backed off and walked away from the Uchiha family.

"By the looks of it, this guy is pretty stupid," Tsumi whispered to Itachi, who snickered back in return. Their father, however, had heard that and almost snorted with laughter.

"As you may already know, but for those who don't me, my name is Kikei Itamashii, and I am going to be the sensei at the academy this year," Itamashii said. Nobody in the courtyard seemed too interested in him because he was only an old geezer or a chuunin and looked extremely stupid.

Tsumi thought that this was a total waste of time; Itachi thought he was less educated than his six year old self, and; their father thought that he was plain stupid.

"Father, is this man a joke?" Tsumi asked her father quietly.

"Actually, I'm extremely surprised that this guy is even a chuunin," her father replied.

Itachi almost burst out laughing when his 'sensei' almost fell into a puddle of mud.

Itamashii regained his balance and sighed. "Ok students, line up in a single file when I call your names. Ashioto Miharu," he started. Miharu stepped up to the front of the line, letting her brown hair blow in the wind.

"Say, would you rather this Miharu instead of that stupid Uchiha," Tanto asked Mesu.

"No, Miharu isn't as pretty as the Uchiha," Mesu shook his head with a frown.

It was always alphabetical order in any class, so the Uchihas had to wait. "Harawata Kawa." Kawa stepped up to the line a few people after Miharu. She waved at Miharu, and Miharu waved back. The two of them seemed to be best friends because they were frequently seen together.

"Jidoshi Jama" was called up, and he seemed to think that he was very popular because he put on this 'bad boy' act and tried to get Miharu and Kawa to look at him. But instead, they just kept chatting away without even noticing that such a being existed.

A few people later, "Kotowaza Mesu" was called up to the line, and started checking out all of his new classmates as he went.

"Mokuroku Matsu, Suru and Tamaru" – the Mokuroku triplets – walked up to the line, one behind the other. The two girls, Suru and Tamaru, were yapping away cheerfully. Their older brother, Matsu, was a plain loner, despite his two sisters.

"Subarashii Shinbo" was called up. He just nervously glanced around and blushed.

'Fem-boy!' Tsumi screamed in her head.

At last, the Uchihas were called.

"Uchiha Itachi," Itamashii called out to them. They walked up to the line as people nervously glanced around and started to whisper.

'What? He didn't call Tsumi's name?' Itachi and his father thought.

After Yakume Hana was called, a young man ran up to Itamashii and handed him a note.

"There...seems to be a late entry," he announced. "Hayashibara Tsumi. Come on up!" he said.

Itachi, Tsumi and their father let out a sigh of relief as Tsumi walked up to the line behind Hana.

"Why isn't Tsumi registered with Uchiha?" Tsumi's father wondered out loud.

"So, class, please follow me." Itamashii lead the line of about thirty young kids into the building for their first time. He let them sit with their friends at the desks, and they immediately sat down in pairs – Itachi and Tsumi; Miharu and Kawa; Matsu, Suru and Tamaru; Jama sat alone in a corner; Shinbo was shy and looked nerdy because he sat at the very front of the class; and finally Mesu and his little gang sat at the farthest possible from the teacher's desk. Hana decided that she should hang out with the girls, so she went and sat with the welcoming Miharu and Kawa, who included her as if they'd known her for ever.

Itamashii cleared his throat to silence his new class. However, Mesu and his little gang kept chatting away without even noticing their sensei. Tsumi turned around and noticed that there were only four other boys in Mesu's gang. They consisted of Mezamashii Mieru, Meshiagaru Samasu, Akujoken Kensa, and Haguruma Keiren. Then she noticed the girl in really short shorts and a tank top that was sitting beside Mesu – Ongaku Karu.

"Misters Kotowaza, Mezamashii, Meshiagaru, Akujoken, Haguruma, and Miss Ongaku, please pay attention!" Itamashii almost screamed at them.

"Whatever." Mesu was obviously speaking for them, who just nodded along with whatever he had said.

"Before I was rudely interrupted, I was going to tell you about several...RULES that I must enforce in this academy." Itamashii had stressed the word 'rules' for those at the back that weren't paying much attention. "Those rules consist of: no speaking when your sensei – which is I - am speaking; no running in the classroom; no throwing items without permission; no eating allowed in the classroom; respect your peers; no negativity; and finally, no attempts to kill."

Itamamashii's last rule left the class in an eerie silence. "And today will not be doing any hands-on stuff until later on in the course." He was cut off by a full class of moans and groans and complaining students as he walked around the classroom, passing out notebooks and photocopies to his students. He got Miharu to pass out some pencils and erasers to the rest of the class.

After the first half of the day, it was break time. Tsumi and Itachi were out at the back with the rest of their class. Miharu and Kawa were hanging out with Hana towards one side of the yard, chatting away. Mesu and his gang kept spying on Tsumi, which made Karu pretty angry and jealous. Itachi, who was getting extremely annoyed with Karu starting to stare at him, gave shot a death glare at her that made her shrink into the corner anime style. Shinbo was hanging out with Suru and Tamaru, Matsu was lying on the lawn, and Jama was trying to get noticed again.

"Those two, Tsumi and Itachi, I think they're called, are pretty popular, aren't they?" Miharu pointed at Tsumi and Itachi, who were sitting up in the shade of a tree.

"Yeah, though I wish I was as pretty as Tsumi!" Kawa said enviously. "What about you, Hana? Don't you think so?"

"Umm...I guess..." Hana was very shy, and blushed every time she said something.

"That Itachi is pretty cute!" Miharu exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Kawa said enviously, again.

"..." Hana didn't really care; she kept her eye out for Jama.

Suru and Tamaru approached the three girls.

"Hey," Suru said.

"Hi," Miharu and Kawa said in return.

"H-hi," Hana managed to get out.

"Do you mind if we hang out with you guys?" Tamaru asked.

"Sure." Miharu smiled.

"Of course." Kawa smiled too.

"..." Hana was too shy to say anything.

"So what you talking about?" Suru asked.

"How cute Itachi is!" Miharu pointed at Itachi, who was leaning back in the tree with Tsumi.

"Tsumi's so lucky! She gets so much attention from him!" Tamaru said.

"Yeah..."

The four girls watched in awe as Itachi produced a beautiful flower and gave it to Tsumi.

"Wow..." Suru was clearly impressed.

"What a guy..." Tamaru said dreamily.

"What a _hunk_!" Kawa exclaimed.

"I wish I was Tsumi," Miharu whined.

Hana didn't even notice the girls. She was too busy sneaking glances at Jama.

Shinbo was skipping along and skipped to the bottom of the tree that Itachi and Tsumi were sitting in. "Hey you two, did you notice that you have a fan club of girls over there that are staring at you?" he giggled.

"Yes, and that's why I'm ignoring them," Itachi replied.

"Oh. I don't think that's very nice, but if you insist!" Shinbo giggled again and skipped off.

"I wonder what Shinbo said?" Miharu wondered.

"Who care about Shinbo? Itachi's still the hunk!" Suru sighed.

Hana almost blushed like a tomato when Jama looked over at her from leaning against a fence. She looked down and tried to hide her face with her bangs. Like usual.

The four other girls looked over at Itachi again. Then at Tsumi, who was looking at the flower. Suddenly, she brought up her arm, and through the flower, which went zooming through the air like a bullet. It smashed a hole in a nearby rock, and the girls gasped.

"What power!" Tamaru gasped.

Miharu, Kawa and Suru nodded in agreement as Hana started to shake on the spot. 'That Tsumi is pretty scary...'

"Hana, are you ok?"

Hana looked up at Jama that was looking down at her. "Y-yes," she managed.

Jama smiled briefly and then turned and walked off, leaving Hana blushing like hell.

"Hana, are you sure you're ok?" Kawa looked concerned at Hana.

"Y-yes," Hana answered again.

The four girls turned their attention back to Itachi, who was still sitting in the tree with Tsumi, again.

Itachi and Tsumi jumped out of the tree in unison, and landed neatly before the now damaged rock. Itachi approached it, and Tsumi smirked. Itachi finished examining the rock that was now severely damaged – it was all cracked from the point where the flower had struck it to the edges. Itachi and Tsumi started talking, and turned around to walk in the direction approaching the five girls.

Miharu, Kawa, Suru and Tamaru started going frantic when they saw their 'hunk' approaching them. They had seriously thought that he would start a conversation. However, he just walked past them with Tsumi only millimeters away from him, and that made them more jealous than ever.

"It's not fair!" Miharu complained after the pair had walked past them. "Why does Tsumi get all of the attention?"

"Umm…probably because she's prettier, stronger, and smarter than all of us combined," Kawa suggested.

"Or maybe because Tsumi's the Uchiha clan's adopted daughter?" Suru suggested.

"Or maybe because he likes her?" Tamaru suggested, but got whacked in the head by Suru, Miharu and Kawa.

"You moron, you're not supposed to say that!" Suru hissed at her when Miharu and Kawa swelled up – anime style – and were just about to blow.

"Why would my Itachi-kun like some stupid orphan!" Miharu screamed.

"Dude, they're adopted siblings," said a voice. The girls looked up to see Matsu looking down at them. He was a lazy kid, but was actually not the dumbest though. He liked to spend most of his time sleeping.

"Go away and sleep somewhere, Matsu," Suru scowled.

"Leave us alone!" Tamaru attempted to push her triplet brother away, but since he was older, stronger and smarter, he just stood there and smirked as he watched his youngest triplet sister trying to push him.

One thought that surged through the minds of Miharu and Kawa: 'Wow, he's pretty hunky too!'

Hana just watched as Miharu and Kawa walked up to Matsu and started trying to talk to him. Suru and Tamaru almost snorted with laughter as Matsu poked them away and walked off to find somewhere to sleep.

"Nice try, but Matsu isn't interested in girls," Tamaru managed to get out between laughs.

Miharu and Kawa just frowned, and went back to glomping over Itachi.

Meanwhile, Itachi and Tsumi were sitting up in a sakura tree.

"Wow, those girls really are annoying," Tsumi scoffed.

"Yeah." Itachi and Tsumi were sitting beside each other on the same branch. Being as young and light as they were, it didn't seem to affect the tree in any way. "Having girls lust over you isn't all that much fun," he continued.

"Well, it's worse when you have some stupid Mesu guy lusting over you! He's worse than Miharu, Kawa, Suru and Tamaru."

"Good point. Mesu's a faggot," Itachi agreed.

"I heard that."

"Go away." Tsumi was obviously annoyed with this brat following her around.

"Kensa, you get the showoff while Mieru and Samasu grab Tsumi," Keiren said. He was the smarter one of the gang, and always came up with quick strategies in tight spots.

"Roger that." Kensa was the strongest of the gang, and he immediately threw a rock at Itachi, who jumped to a higher branch to safety. Mieru and Samasu tried to grab Tsumi off the lower branch, but failed miserably. Suddenly, someone jumped up and grabbed Tsumi off the branch. It was Mesu. Since the branch was fairly low on the sakura tree, it was easy to jump up onto it. Mesu grabbed Tsumi by her waist and landed neatly on the ground. Itachi, who was preoccupied with Kensa, Mieru and samaru, couldn't help her until he was finished with the three idiots.

Mesu threw Tsumi against the wall of the building. "And you thought you could get away from me?" he hissed at her, "Nobody gets away from any Kotowaza that easily."

He slowly approached Tsumi, who was thrown against the wall fairly hard. She was still trying to recover from it, but her left wrist was still in a lot of pain. "Dammit," she cursed.

Mesu grabbed her by her shoulders and forced her up to her feet. He started banging Tsumi against the brick wall, and Tsumi began becoming weak. Mesu pinned Tsumi against the wall after a Tsumi was weakened. He moved in closer and started stroking Tsumi's cheek. Then, he leant in tried to kiss her. However, that didn't quite work out for him because Tsumi gave him a hard punch in the face before he got any closer. Staggering back, Mesu was shocked. "No girl has ever hit me before," Mesu growled, "and I didn't think that any girl would. You truly surprise me, Hayashibara. I didn't think any girl would even try to hit me like that. However, you shall be severely punished for that." Mesu was about to punch Tsumi back, but his fist was caught in mid air. Somebody had grabbed his wrist. "What the...?" Mesu turned back to see Itachi standing behind him with angered eyes.

"You will pay for what you have done to Tsumi," Itachi said with an icy tone and a glare that felt like a thousand daggers being stabbed into your back. Still holding onto Mesu's wrist, Itachi flipped him onto his back. Stunned by this, Mesu was temporarily paralyzed on the ground. Itachi ran over to Tsumi. "Are you all right?" he asked with concern.

"Yeah, now that you're here," Tsumi said and kissed Itachi's nose. Itachi returned the kiss by kissing Tsumi on her forehead.

Mesu, who saw this, was very angered and cried out for help from his friends. However, they didn't come to his aide because they were all lying on the ground themselves.

"What's going on here?" Itamashii asked as he walked over to see a whole bunch of kids flipped on their back, lying on the ground, and moaning and groaning terribly loudly.

"Sensei, these boys were trying to harass Tsumi, and they attacked the both of us," Itachi reported. It was actually true, and really convincing, since Tsumi had scratched arms, and blood trickling down the corner of her mouth. Itachi, who was really dirty and covered in dust, was trying to pat it off, but that didn't work too well for him. A lot of the other kids in the yard had come over to see what the huge commotion was about, and they had witnessed what had happened.

Miharu, Kawa, Suru and Tamaru were there the whole time too.

"Wow, did you see Itachi-kun's moves? Those were amazing!" Tamaru exclaimed.

"Yeah! The way he had flipped that jerk Mesu was amazing!" Kawa agreed.

"I liked that punch Tsumi gave Mesu! I wish I could do that too!" Suru wanted to give Mesu a punch for what he had done as well.

"Itachi!" Tsumi called to Itachi as Mesu had suddenly jumped up and knocked him over. She ran over to him to make sure that he was alright. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah. What about you?"

"I'm fine! What about _you_? That was a hard hit there!" she was really worried.

"I'm fine too, but you got slammed into the wall so many times, you should be worrying about yourself." Itachi looked over at the wall where there were several bloodstains on the bricks.

Itamashii immediately noted this down, and got some of the kids nearby to help Mesu, Mieru, Samasu, Kensa and Keiren to the nurse's office. Then, he turned and faced Itachi and Tsumi. "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah." The two of them were okay, but injured.

"I'm going to call your parents about what had happened today," he continued. The pair simply nodded. "You two should head off to the nurse's office as well. Matsu, Jama, Shinbo, help these two please," he said.

"Yes, sensei." The three boys – well, two and a half – helped Tsumi and Itachi to the nurse's office. Itamashii got some janitors to clean up the mess on the walls, and he made his way to the office to phone home to the parents of the seven kids.

'To think that they would make such a big deal on the first day of school...' Itamashii shook his head. He dialed the phone number to the Kotowaza's house first, and informed Tanto of what had happened. Then, one by one, Itamashii called up the Mezamashii, Meshiagaru, Akujoken, and Haguruma households. After he had explained the situation to the four other families, he called up the Uchiha's house. The man of the house was there, and he received the call. After Itamashii explained the situation for the last time, he hung up and walked back to the classroom where he was to meet the remainder of his class.

While class continued, the seven kids were resting in the nurse's office. Tsumi was sleeping on a bed, and Itachi was watching her sleep in a chair next to her bed. They were surrounded by a screening. On the other side of the room, five stupid kids were sleeping too, and one of them was having perverted thoughts about his crush.

By the time the day ended, Itachi had fallen asleep himself. The parents of the parents of the seven kids were called in, and were in a conference room with Itamashii while their kids were still resting. After an hour or so, one by one, the parents of the kids entered the room and woke up their kids. Kensa was the first to go, followed by Keiren, Samasu and Mieru. A short while later, Tanto had woken up Mesu and brought him home as well. The Uchiha parents were still conversing with Itamashii, and didn't leave until after they were done.

"Itachi..." his mother trailed off. Itachi woke up and rubbed his eyes. After blinking several times, he looked up and saw his parents looking down at him. Itachi couldn't tell if his parents were smiling or frowning because their facial expressions were hard to tell at a time like this.

"Tsumi..." Tsumi's mother failed to wake her up.

"Let me try," her father offered. "Tsumi," he started, "it's time to go." Still, there was nothing. They tried several more times.

"She's really weak," Itachi said. "She got slammed into the wall a few too many times."

"So I've heard." His father was worried about her.

Tsumi, who was lying unconscious in the bed, was in a deep dream...

**Dream**

'Oh no; not him again…' Tsumi whined in her head as Mesu approached her. He slammed her into the wall, and started to caress her cheek again. He leant in and started breathing in the scent of her hair. Tsumi tried to push him away, but her hands were suddenly tied behind her back. Mesu put his one hand on her shoulder, and used the other hand to force Tsumi's chin up. Tsumi automatically looked into his brown eyes, which were now closed. Mesu put his arms around Tsumi's waist, and started to lean in...

**End of dream**

"No...no..." Tsumi was talking in her sleep.

"Tsumi?" Itachi bent over and kissed the tip of her nose. Tsumi woke up to see Itachi right there, and she felt relieved that it was only a nightmare.

"Mother! Father!" Tsumi was happy to see that her family was there too.

"Tsumi, are you alright?" her mother asked.

"I'm fine, but kind of weak," Tsumi replied.

"You can rest more at home," her father said.

"Yes, father."

Tsumi got out of the bed and followed her parents to go home, while clinging onto her brother's arm. Itachi smiled at her and kissed her on her cheek. "It's okay Tsumi, we're going home. You're always safe when I'm around," he assured her.

"Thank you, Itachi." Tsumi kissed him back, but on the lips.

**TBC**


	5. Chapter V: Changing Destiny?

**Changes**

**Chapter Five**

**Changing Destiny…?**

Just like every other ordinary six-year-old, Tsumi and Itachi were quite the ambitious ones. Usually by saying that, people would probably mean that they were nosy, annoying, and had some strange obsession for something. I wouldn't say that Tsumi and Itachi were obsessed over each other – which they don't – but they were still quite ambitious.

Why don't you think back to when _you_ were six years old? Weren't there always the few that were always being avoided by people because everybody thought they were dangerous? Or – actually – too cool?

That was the category that our two favourite characters fit in. Tsumi and Itachi were always being avoided by people because their classmates were either scared of their powers, or were constantly being stalked, groped…etc.

However, telling you all of this doesn't really have anything to do with this chapter.

_**Itachi**_

'Poor Tsumi!'I thought as I watched her sleep. 'Damned Mesu!' I almost felt myself slamming my fist into the wall as I remembered that stupid idiot!

I looked up when I heard noises coming from Tsumi. I watched closely as her closed eyes twitched, and she started to murmur something. I tried to hear what she was saying, but it didn't take long for me to figure out that she was having a bad dream.

"No…no…" Tsumi started to say. Then, her eyes shot open and she sat up straight in her bed.

"Tsumi? Are you ok?"

"Huh? Oh, Itachi, it's you!" Tsumi flung her arms around my neck. "I was so scared," she started, and mother opened the door.

"Tsumi! Are you alright?" she looked worried. After all, some jerk just came over and groped her!

"Yes mother, I'm fine," Tsumi yawned. Looking relieved, mother turned around and walked out of the room. "Itachi, don't you get bored watching me sleep?"

"…"

"I mean, after all, you sit here for most of the time watching me snooze."

"Well, it is kind of boring, I guess."

"Just as I thought…don't worry about me, I'm fine alone."

"I don't trust it."

"Oh." Tsumi smiled. She hugged me tighter.

Just then, mother walked back in the room to deliver Tsumi's chicken noodle soup. I saw a smile creep across her face at what she had just witnessed.

"Here Tsumi, eat up," she said while giving me a 'what-are-you-doing' look. She laughed as she pointed at my confused look, which wasn't usually displayed on my face.

"Si…si…sis…ta?" murmured a little voice. The three of us looked up to see that little baby Sasuke was peering in from the crack of the door, holding it in place so it wouldn't creek if it opened.

"Sasuke! What are you doing?" Mother was obviously worried because Sasuke could have squashed himself in the doorway.

"Sister," he repeated confidently.

"Sasuke!" Tsumi exclaimed as Sasuke started crawling into the room. He managed to climb up onto Tsumi's bed beside her. Tsumi had already let go of my neck as she went to hug Sasuke.

_**Tsumi**_

I let go of Itachi's neck as Sasuke climbed onto the bed beside me. I hugged him tightly and I kissed him on his forehead as he started staring at me strangely, as if trying to say something. "A-awoo-aw-wii-tte?" he managed to say.

"Yes, Sasuke," I smiled back.

"Mother, can I have my dinner now?" Itachi suddenly asked. I noticed the clock on the wall and it read eight forty-five.

"Yes Itachi," mother sighed as Itachi walked out of my room. "Ok Sasuke, you'll have to let Tsumi finish her dinner now," mother tried coaxing Sasuke to leave me alone.

"No!" Sasuke put on a frown as mother tried pulling him away. She sighed.

"You can stay here with Tsumi as long as you're in bed by nine o'clock, and you let Tsumi finish her dinner," mother gave in.

"Yay!" Sasuke cheered as he grabbed a Kleenex box and sat beside me, just incase I spill my food.

Mother shook her head as she left the room after Itachi. Sasuke was watching me silently as I finished my chicken noodle soup, and put it aside. He held up the Kleenex box for me to wipe my mouth.

"Thank you very much," I thanked Sasuke as mother walked back into the room at around nine.

"Ok Sasuke, we have to let sister get her sleep now," mother said.

"Yesh!" Sasuke trooped out of the room in a crawl after mother, who turned around and told me that I could watch some TV if I wanted too.

'I guess…? I mean, I rested quite enough today, and I'm practically wide awake!' I thought to myself as I slipped on my slippers and walked out of my room.

_**Third person perspective**_

Tsumi walked down the hall to the living room which was connected to the kitchen, but on a lower landing.

"Sorry," Tsumi said to Itachi as she walked over to the couched and picked up the TV controller. "I made you miss dinner!"

"S'ok." Itachi was chewing on his negi ramen, which the rest of the family obviously didn't have for dinner.

'Aww, I made him skip a better dinner! Now I feel bad…'

"It's ok, really." By now, Itachi had put his dishes away in the sink, and walked over to sit down besides Tsumi on the couch. However, Tsumi was too busy feeling bad about it that she didn't notice what was going on.

Itachi had put his arm around Tsumi, and rested his head on her shoulder. He instantly fell asleep, being tired and all from the events of the day himself.

Tsumi started to stroke his cheek, wondering how his skin could possibly be so soft. 'And now I know why all of the girls drool over him,' Tsumi thought with a smile. She turned around to see that their father had brought her a blanket.

"I don't think you should wake him up," he whispered as he handed Tsumi the blanket.

"Thank you," Tsumi whispered back as she spread the blanket over Itachi and herself.

After her father had left, Tsumi turned on the TV and the volume down. She started flicking through the channels, stopping here and there to see what was on.

"Argh…" Itachi moaned as he rubbed his eyes and stretched his arms. Then, he leaned on Tsumi with such force that she fell over on the couch with his head now resting on the armrest beside Tsumi's head.

'Great,' Tsumi thought as she pulled up the blanket, turned off the TV, and turned her body so that it wasn't all twisted up. 'And now I can't sleep…'

She lay there for quite a while, trying to doze off to sleep again. Every once in a while, Itachi would turn his body around, pull up the blanket higher, or suddenly twitch his head. Observing this, Tsumi started to wonder what he was dreaming about. She put her forehead to his, and startled herself when she saw something in her mind.

**Premonition**

"What am I doing here?" There was an evil laugh as a response. Itachi was extremely confused, but when the shadow stepped into the light, it revealed the jerk. "Mesu!"

"Haha, you stupid Uchiha! You'll never escape!" Mesu laughed again as Itachi tried untying his wrists when he realized that they were bound by ropes. Mesu walked over and kicked Itachi.

"Get away from me!" he yelled.

"I already have what I want." And Mesu laughed once again.

"What do you mean…? What did you do with Tsumi?" Itachi demanded.

"That, I don't have to tell you!" Mesu sneered.

"Itachi! Help me!"

"Tsumi!" Itachi heard Tsumi crying out for help, and he struggled even more. "Let her go you coward!" Itachi yelled at Mesu.

"Shut up, moron!" Mesu smirked. "So maybe I'm two years older than everyone else at the academy, but that doesn't really matter for anything! That means I'm older, stronger, and smarter than you lot!"

"You're…two years older?" Itachi found this hard to believe. 'I mean, this kid is just about the same size as me, so much weaker, and brainless. That's sad.'

"_Itachi!"_

'I'm certain that's Tsumi!' Itachi yelled in his head. "Tsumi!" Mesu pulled out a whip, and slashed it across Itachi's body. Itachi yelped in pain. "Let her go!"

Mesu laughed again. "Watching you suffer is far too amusing," he mused. "Should I finish you off quick and painless? Or torture you for long, endless hours?"

Suddenly, the pictures started getting blurrier, and it started to swirl and mix into one huge blob.

**End of premonition**

Tsumi found herself lying beside Itachi on the couch. 'Oww…my head…' she rubbed her temples, and shook her head. 'That hurt…I wonder what happened?' Tsumi looked down at Itachi, who was still sleeping soundly. 'It wouldn't hurt to get some answers, would it?'

'

She crept out of the warmth of the blanket, and slipped on her slippers. Then, she quietly tiptoed to her parents' room. Just as Tsumi raised her fist to knock on the door, she heard a voice. "Come in Tsumi," said her father.

Tsumi pushed the door open slowly to make sure that it didn't creak. Her mother was in the bathroom, and her father was reading a book in their bed. "What is it?" he asked Tsumi.

"Well, Itachi was sleeping, and he was stirring around, and then I started wondering what he was dreaming about," Tsumi started. "So I put my forehead to his, and then suddenly I saw something different." She told her father about her dream.

"Oh, Tsumi, that was no dream!" her mother said as she walked out of the bathroom.

"Then what was it?" Tsumi was confused. If it wasn't a dream, what else could it be?

"Tsumi, you have the advanced bloodline ability to see into the future. At times, you can have premonitions – a kind of vision into the future – that warn you about things to come. If I were you, I'd pay attention to them, because ninety-nine percent of the premonitions people have are true," her father explained.

"I have…an advanced bloodline ability to see into the future?" Tsumi was quite amazed. "So that's why they call me a child prodigy…" Tsumi wondered. 'Wait, did I say that out loud?'

"Yeah, that's why," her mother answered her question.

"Oh. Is an advanced bloodline good or bad?" Tsumi wanted to know more.

"It's usually a good thing. However, in other countries and places, it may be a bad thing. Like here, in Konoha, it's a good thing. Take the Sharingan, for example. It's a good thing because it helps us Uchihas to predict and copy moves," her father explained. "However, some other advanced bloodline abilities – which I'm sure – can be a bad thing. I haven't exactly heard of any specific ability, but I'm sure there are some out there, and they can't be all that great.

"Your ability to see into the future is a rare ability, Tsumi," he continued. "Not many people can see into the future, and have a heads-up about what's going to happen. You're very lucky to have the warnings to tell you what you should avoid, Tsumi."

Tsumi was lost in thought. 'If the premonition I had was ninety-nine percent true…then…' Her thoughts were interrupted when baby Sasuke thudded into the room.

"Mommy!" he whined.

"Come here Sasuke," she sighed as Sasuke started to climb up onto the bed.

"I think I should go now…" Tsumi started.

"We can talk more about your premonitions some other time," her mother said and made a gesture meaning 'because Sasuke's here now'.

"Good night," Tsumi said as she turned and walked out of the room.

Tsumi quietly tiptoed back to the couch where Itachi was supposedly sleeping. Just as she turned around to get back under the covers, Itachi's eyes fluttered wide open. Tsumi was startled by this.

"I heard everything," Itachi started. "I know about your advanced bloodline ability and your premonition."

"…" Tsumi had nothing left to say. Itachi continued.

"What did you see in your premonition?"

"I…uhh…"

"Tell me."

"I…don't know…"

"It's okay, really. Just tell me what you saw," Itachi said.

'If I tell him…he's going to worry, and I don't want him to worry…but if I tell him, he's going to be so overprotective about it that, well, I just actually might not like it…' Tsumi thought for a while. "I…saw…"

"Go on…?" Noticing that it was making Tsumi uncomfortable to say it, he edged over to let Tsumi lie beside him – which she did. He covered them with the blanket, and pulled her close. "You don't have to tell me if you don't feel like telling me. If it bugs you that much, then we can just forget about this and get some sleep."

"I guess I should tell you, just so you know what will most likely happen in the near future," Tsumi started. Itachi was listening intently as Tsumi continued. "I saw you tied up in some old building, and Mesu was laughing at you and threatening to kill you." There was an eerie silence, but Tsumi went on. "I heard from Mesu that I was kept somewhere locked up, and I knew he was going to do something to me. Also, I heard Mesu say that he was two years older than everyone else at the academy."

Itachi was stunned at such a premonition. 'For a first premonition…it's amazing that it can be so accurate,' he thought.

"I know, for a first premonition, it was quite scary, eh?" Tsumi answered the question that was lingering in his mind as if she had read it.

"Yeah. But it's not going to happen. I'll make sure of it." Itachi turned to his side and faced Tsumi's back. He wrapped his arm around her waist, and whispered into her ear. "I'll never let that happen to you. I promise."

There was a moment of silence. "Are you going to attempt to change destiny?" Tsumi whispered.

"I…don't know. However, I can try to prevent that from happening." Itachi kissed the back of Tsumi's neck lightly. Shocked by this, Tsumi said nothing as he buried his face in her hair, and fell asleep.

It took her quite a while to get to sleep. So many things were swarming in her mind. Thought about her premonition, and what fate and destiny had in store for them.

**The next morning…**

Sunlight had flooded into the room. Tsumi awoke first to find that Itachi still had one hand wrapped around her waist, and but his face was no longer buried in her hair. Carefully, Tsumi turned around to face the sleeping form of Itachi. 'He really is cute,' she thought as she took in his sleeping expression.

"Sister! Brother! Up! Up! Up!" Sasuke chanted happily as he crawled into the room.

"Aww…" Itachi moaned as he rubbed his eyes. Watching this, Tsumi thought he looked even cuter. Itachi's eyes fluttered open, and he was surprised to see Tsumi staring back at him less than three inches away.

"Ohayo," Tsumi said cheerfully.

"O…hayo," Itachi said with a confused expression as if he couldn't remember what happened the previous night before he fell asleep. Then, he noticed that the blanket wasn't covering them, and everyone in the world could have seen that his arm was wrapped around Tsumi's waist, and he looked like he was pulling her into him. Sasuke, who already noticed this, was staring strangely.

"What you doing?" Sasuke asked curiously. Even for a one-year-old, Sasuke could speak the simplest sentences because he listens in on conversations quite frequently, and he could easily imitate people's sayings.

"Tsumi was cold last night," Itachi lied.

"Oh." Sasuke noticed the blanket. "Bankit!" he pointed to it. Sasuke obviously didn't think that Itachi's explanation was very convincing.

"Well, I didn't want to wake her up to get it," Itachi lied again.

"Oh." Sasuke seemed to have understood now, and stopped his interrogation as he crawled off to the kitchen to wait for his breakfast.

"That was so close," Tsumi whispered in Itachi's ear.

"Yeah, I know. I don't think it fully convinced him, but it's good enough. At least he doesn't talk all that well, and if he tries to tell our parents, I don't think they'd understand…thankfully," Itachi sighed and he lifted his arm off of Tsumi's waist.

Tsumi got up from the couch, and slumped off to the bathroom after a _very_ long night. She slipped off her pajamas and took a reeeeeeeeally long shower. By reeeeeeeeally long, I mean over thirty minutes of letting the hot water run down her back.

Banging was heard at the door. "Tsumi! Hurry up!" Itachi shouted over the water.

"Hn? Oh, right…" Tsumi quickly finished her shower, washed up, and brushed her teeth. Then, she slipped on her bathrobe and ran out of the bathroom at the speed of light to her room, earning confused looks from Itachi, who nearly got ran over.

"What the…?" Ignoring Tsumi, Itachi walked into the steaming hot bathroom, and ran back out because he almost suffocated because the air was so hot from Tsumi's shower. "It feels like…a sauna…in there…" he panted. Itachi quickly zipped back in to turn on the fan, and then ran back out so that he could breathe.

"What's wrong, Itachi?" his mother asked him as she was walking by.

"It's so hot in there!" he whined.

"From what?"

"Tsumi's shower!"

"…"

"What?"

"She's a girl! Give her a break!" his mother said finally.

"Hey, you're just sticking up for her!" Itachi pouted as his mother walked off to do the laundry. By this time, the room had cooled down, and Itachi gratefully walked in to take his shower.

**Meanwhile…**

"Sister! Sister! Sister!" Sasuke chanted happily as he ran into Tsumi's room and attached himself to her right leg.

"…?" Tsumi was confused, but she decided to play along. 'Thank god I change fast…'

"Sister!" Sasuke started up again.

"Sasuke," Tsumi sighed.

"Sister!" Sasuke kept saying.

"Yes?" Tsumi was trying to remain patient.

"Hungy!" Sasuke pouted.

"Then to the kitchen we go!" Tsumi picked Sasuke up in her arms and walked down the hall to the kitchen.

"Ohayo," their parents said.

"Ohayo," Tsumi responded. Sasuke tried to say 'ohayo', but ended up with "oho!" Tsumi giggled at this.

"What did you want for breakfast?" her mother asked as Tsumi set Sasuke down in his highchair.

"Umm...a bagel please," Tsumi said politely.

"Coming right up." Her mother popped a bagel into the toaster, and her father set down Sasuke's baby food. Then, he sat down at the table, took a sip of his coffee, and unfolded the morning paper.

As their mother set the bagel on the table in front of Tsumi, Itachi slumped into the room and plopped himself into a chair beside Tsumi. "And what would you like?" his mother asked him and rolled her eyes.

"A bagel?" Itachi was busy glaring at Tsumi.

"What?" she asked him.

"Your hot shower nearly suffocated me when I tried to go in after you," he growled. Tsumi giggled. "Have you ever heard about turning the fan on?"

"…well, yes."

"Then why don't you use it?" Itachi frowned when Tsumi started laughing at his face.

"Because I didn't want to, that's why." She laughed again when Itachi lifted an eyebrow at her.

"Right…" His mother set the plate with his bagel on it in front of him, but he didn't seem to have noticed.

"Brother!" Sasuke pointed at his spoon that had fallen on the floor beside Itachi's chair. When he realized that he was being ignored, Sasuke started kicking his feet furiously against the highchair.

"Huh? Oh." Itachi bent over to pick up the spoon, and tossed it into the sink. Then, he went to get a fresh spoon for his brother.

Tsumi giggled. She walked over to Sasuke and kissed him on his tiny forehead as she went to put her plate into the sink. Sasuke, who didn't know what happened, looked curiously at her.

"Sister? Foe!" Sasuke said.

"Yes, Sasuke!" Tsumi went and picked him up and carried him off to the living room. Itachi, who finished shortly after their departure, put his dishes in the sink as well, followed his siblings and joined them in watching TV in the living room.

"Brother!" Sasuke pointed at Itachi, who sat down beside him.

"Hai, Sasuke, brother," Tsumi rolled her eyes. Sasuke laughed with the fingernails on one hand on his chin. Suddenly, he started crying on the spot, and his mother rushed in and picked him up.

"He needs a diaper change," she mumbled to herself, and turned to the two kids. "You two go out and play for the day," she sighed as she rushed off to the bathroom.

"Well, there's nothing else to do," Tsumi muttered as she grabbed Itachi's hand and dragged him out the door.

"I want to study!" he complained.

"Just take one day off?"

"No!" With that, he managed to pry his wrist free of Tsumi's strong grip, and made his way back to the house. However, he was caught by Tsumi, who had jogged after him and grabbed his two wrists.

"Come on! Have some fun!" She dragged him into town.

**Meanwhile…**

"Hey, isn't that Itachi-kun?" Kawa pointed at the small black speck in the distance. She was drinking lemonade at a café with Miharu, Suru and Tamaru.

"Yeah!" Miharu immediately straightened her clothes, and fixed her hair, hoping that Itachi would notice her.

"Sorry Miharu, but Tsumi's with him. I doubt he would notice you," Suru pointed out.

"Shut up!" Miharu yelled in Suru's face. Everyone gasped.

"Miharu, you said a bad word!" Kawa gasped, and immediately covered her mouth with her hand.

"So?" Miharu was enraged. It was the first time that somebody said that a boy would not notice her because of another girl. She stood up ever so suddenly, and her chair almost toppled over behind her. "I'm going to get Itachi-kun to notice me even with his stupid sister with him!"

Miharu suddenly stormed off in the direction of the two little specks in the near distance.

"Wow…she's really taking this better than I thought," Kawa shook her head.

"That's…considered as good?" Suru's voice was shaking.

"Umm…yeah…"

"Let's see what she does now," Tamaru suddenly added in.

Miharu was quickly approaching Itachi and Tsumi, who were holding hands. Itachi, who finally gave in, was slowly strolling beside Tsumi. Seeing Miharu storm up to him was quite amusing because he didn't know what to expect.

"Let him go!" she yelled at a confused Tsumi.

"Wha…?" she had no idea what was going on, and before she knew it, Miharu was trying to pry Tsumi and Itachi's hands free. "What are you doing?"

Miharu didn't answer. She was trying her hardest to separate the two hands. Laughing was heard in the distance.

"Seriously girl, what are you doing?" Itachi asked with a raised eyebrow. Miharu looked up at his face, and she tried resisting the urge to throw her arms around his neck and hug him. "Umm…do you mind?" Itachi wasn't used to the fact that some girl had randomly walked up to him and his sister, and tried to separate their hands.

"_Augh_!" Miharu was frustrated, because the grip of Itachi's hand was too strong.

"Honestly, can you leave us alone?" Tsumi asked. Miharu turned to face her.

"Let go of my Itachi-kun!" Miharu screamed in her face.

"What…do…you…mean…?" Itachi didn't understand what was going on. "What do you mean by 'my Itachi-kun'? I belong to nobody but myself."

Tsumi started laughing. "Are you meaning to say that you like my brother?" she managed to get out before she burst out laughing again.

Kawa, Suru and Tamaru were watching this from under their umbrella at the café. Kawa took a sip of her lemonade.

"You know, this is getting more hilarious by the second!" she mused.

"That Tsumi is pretty smart!" Tamaru said, clearly impressed. She turned her attention back towards her ice cream.

"Honestly, Miharu – that's your name, right? – what are you doing?" Tsumi asked.

"Girl, I would appreciate it if you stopped bothering us. If you keep this up, I swear I won't mind hurting you," Itachi said with an icy tone.

"Itachi-kun!" Miharu threw her arms around Itachi. She could no longer resist – she longed for it too long.

Itachi said nothing. Instead, he grabbed Miharu by the shoulders, and shoved her off.

"That was mean!" Kawa ran up to Miharu, who had fallen to the ground from the impact. Suru and Tamaru were still sitting at the café, watching the scene. Kawa turned to her best friend. "Miharu, are you okay?"

"Yes," Miharu answered weakly.

Kawa turned to Itachi, ran up to him, and said an unexpected "now that Miharu's out of the way…do you like me?"

Itachi, who was stunned by this, stood there blinking. "What…the…hell…?"

"Please say yes!" Kawa pleaded.

"Umm, no. You girls are so annoying!" Itachi rolled his eyes, and pulled Tsumi after him.

"I told you guys already! Itachi wouldn't notice any of us as long as Tsumi's there with him!" Suru called over from the café.

"You…shut up," two angry girls muttered.

**Meanwhile…**

Tsumi burst out laughing. Itachi just frowned at this.

"That…was…the…most…hilarious…thing…I…ever…saw…in…my…life!" she managed to get out between laughs. She fell over on their front lawn, and grabbed her ribs as she was laughing.

"No, it wasn't."

"Yes it was! Well, of course _you_ don't find it funny because you were the guy that had girls fighting over, but from somebody else's point of view, it was hilarious!"

"…" Itachi said nothing. He didn't like the idea of having girls fighting over him. It made him sick.

When Tsumi had finally finished laughing like a maniac, she sighed and rolled around in the grass. Itachi, who was getting tired from standing up, sat down beside her. He was wearing a navy blue t-shirt with the Uchiha clan symbol on the back, and a pair of black shorts, and sandals.

Tsumi rolled over to him, covering herself in sakura petals. She was wearing a crimson t-shirt with a black design on it, and black shorts with the little Uchiha fan in the corner of one of the legs.

Itachi lied down beside her, his hands behind his head. The gentle breeze blew the sakura petals from the tall tree in the air, making a beautiful sight as the clouds slowly passed by. "Tsumi," he started.

"Yes?"

"What does it feel like to have a premonition?" he asked ever so randomly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, is it scary?"

"Well, it was my first time, so it was slightly scary, I guess."

"Oh." Itachi sighed, and he closed his eyes. "Wouldn't that be so great if we could change destiny…" he drifted off to sleep, as did Tsumi.

The pair lay there on their front lawn, sleeping as a gentle breeze blew the sakura petals around. Sasuke, who was taking his afternoon nap, was snoozing inside, when he suddenly sensed something and woke up in tears. His parents ran into the room to see if he was okay. "What's wrong Sasuke?" his mother cooed.

"Brother an sister!" he yelled with his little voice.

"What? Brother and sister? What about them?" his father asked curiously. "Maybe he's picking something up with his senses?" he suggested to his wife.

"Pobem!" Sasuke yelled again.

"There's a problem with Itachi and Tsumi?" his father guessed. His mother went to look at the window – the two weren't there.

"Where could they have gone? Only two minutes ago, I saw them drift off to sleep!" their mother exclaimed.

"Bad!" Sasuke said.

"Bad…?" Sasuke wasn't helping in any way.

"Bad pobem wiff brother an sister!"

"Bad problem with Itachi and Tsumi?" his mother guessed.

"Hai!" Sasuke said confidently.

"I think this kid has been watching too much TV," his father said as he put Sasuke back into his crib and left the room with his wife.

**Meanwhile…**

"Where am I?" Itachi's eyes opened, but shut themselves again. They needed time to adjust to the light.

"You're in my lair," said a familiar voice. When Itachi finally opened his eyes again, he saw a shadow standing a distance in front of him.

"What am I doing here?" There was an evil laugh as a response. Itachi was extremely confused, but when the shadow stepped into the light, it revealed the jerk. "Mesu!"

"Haha, you stupid Uchiha! You'll never escape!" Mesu laughed again as Itachi tried untying his wrists when he realized that they were suddenly bound by ropes. Mesu walked over and kicked Itachi.

"Get away from me!" he yelled.

"I already have what I want." And Mesu laughed once again.

"What do you mean…? What did you do with Tsumi?" Itachi demanded.

"That, I don't have to tell you!" Mesu sneered.

"Itachi! Help me!"

"Tsumi!" Itachi heard Tsumi crying out for help, and he struggled even more. "Let her go you coward!" Itachi yelled at Mesu.

"Shut up, moron!" Mesu smirked. "So maybe I'm two years older than everyone else at the academy, but that doesn't really matter for anything! That means I'm older, stronger, and smarter than you lot!"

"You're…two years older?" Itachi found this hard to believe. 'I mean, this kid is just about the same size as me, so much weaker, and brainless. That's sad.'

"_Itachi_!"

'I'm certain that's Tsumi!' Itachi yelled in his head. "Tsumi!" Mesu pulled out a whip, and slashed it across Itachi's body. Itachi yelped in pain. "Let her go!"

Mesu laughed again. "Watching you suffer is far too amusing," he mused. "Should I finish you off quick and painless? Or torture you for long, endless hours?"

"Let Tsumi go!" That was all Itachi cared about; Tsumi's safety.

"And if I don't…?" Mesu slashed Itachi's helpless body again. Itachi grunted from the impact.

'Dammit! Mesu holds all of the cards right now,' Itachi thought. 'What can I do to save Tsumi…? And hopefully escape with my own life, too? I can easily save us both if I could somehow undo these damned ropes! Then I'll know for sure that I can beat up Mesu and his gang!'

"What's wrong? You're too quiet! I can fix that…" Mesu whipped at Itachi again. Itachi didn't do as much as blink. Mesu whipped harder. Itachi still blinked. "Why aren't you screaming, yelling, or panicking?" he asked Itachi with a scowl.

"I don't know. Am I supposed to?" Itachi asked with a smirk.

"_You_ dare smirk at _me_!" Mesu broke into another long laugh. "Uchiha, you truly surprise me." Mesu closed his eyes and shook his head.

"Where's Tsumi?" Itachi asked calmly.

"Your sister…? Oh, you mean your girlfriend?" Mesu glared. "Correction: she's _my_ girlfriend now!"

"She's not my girlfriend. That's wrong to be going out with your sister, Mesu." Mesu, who didn't like to be outsmarted, slashed at Itachi's mouth. Itachi did nothing; not even a blink.

"Shut up! I never said you could talk!"

A door creaked open from behind Mesu, who now had one leg up on a folding chair, and his arm rested on it. Two shadowy figures stepped into the room – Kensa and Keiren.

"What do you want?" Mesu snarled.

"Boss, the chi – err, I mean girl, won't shut up, and it's near impossible to keep her still," Kensa reported.

"Really now?" Mesu wondered out loud, and the two other boys nodded. "Bring her in," he decided.

Itachi felt a rush of hope when he heard that Tsumi was going to be brought into the room. 'It obviously can't be a good thing,' he reminded himself. 'I'll have to watch for my actions. I hope Tsumi does the same.'

Kensa left the room to retrieve Tsumi. "You're happy to see her, eh?" Mesu growled at Itachi.

"What do you mean…?"

The door open, and Itachi instinctively looked up. He saw Kensa, Samasu, and two other boys trying to drag Tsumi into the room, but they were failing miserably. Tsumi lashed out a few hard kicks at them to get them off of her. Of course, they had to touch her to keep her still, but it gave Tsumi the idea that they didn't want to touch her for just that reason. She looked up.

"Itachi!" she cried as she lashed out one last time at Kensa, and ran towards Itachi, who was sitting down in the corner, her hands also tied behind her back.

"Tsumi! Watch out!" Itachi yelled as Mesu suddenly grabbed Tsumi's shoulder and pulled her back, making her lose balance, and she fell into his arms.

"Get off me!" Tsumi's voice no longer sounded of one of a six-year-old; it had changed, and it sounded more firm, stern, and mature.

"And if I don't?" Mesu pushed her onto the floor, and sat on her stomach, his legs pushing into both of Tsumi's sides, locking her in place.

"Get off her!" Itachi growled, and tried to get up, but was immediately pushed back down by a heavily bruised Samasu.

"Tsumi…" Mesu started stroking her face.

"Don't touch me!" She attempted to kick him, but he held down her legs. He chuckled at the sight of Tsumi trying to free herself.

Mesu lied down on top of Tsumi, making her feel extremely uncomfortable. "_Pervert_!" she bellowed as Mesu tried pulling down her shorts, but failed miserably when she kicked his head away.

'Come on Tsumi…just a bit longer…' Itachi thought desperately. He was trying to break through the thick ropes by slicing them with a sharp part of the pipe that was on the wall. 'Yes!' He had broken free. Now he just had to wait for the right time to attack. He quickly glanced at Samasu, who looked like he was going to perform a hand seal for a jutsu any minute now, just in case anything happened. 'Hand seals…I've read about those before. Shinobi perform hand seals before they use a jutsu,' Itachi reminded himself before he went on with his attack.

"Tsumi…" Mesu kept murmuring as he started trying to lift up her shirt.

"Get _off_ me! _Pervert_!" Tsumi was screaming. 'Itachi…make your attack now! Samasu's not looking!'

Just then, Itachi made his attack. He jumped up, and elbowed Samasu in his gut really hard. Samasu obviously doubled over from the pain. Kensa, who was standing nearby, ran up to punch Itachi, but he was too slow – Itachi was already gone. When Kensa finally saw Itachi, he had already beaten the other two guys, and was going after him. Kensa, who was slightly stupid and slow, couldn't even see where Itachi went to, was caught by surprise when Itachi appeared behind him and put him into a headlock. Then, Itachi remember something he read in a book about knocking someone unconscious, and he did just that. Whacking Kensa on the right spot of the head, Kensa collapsed on the ground in front of Itachi. 'The power of books…amazing,' Itachi thought. Then, he spotted Keiren coming up behind him, trying to kick him in his back. Itachi whipped around and lashed his leg out at Keiren before he could even respond, knocking him out instantly.

Samasu, who had somehow revived from the blow, had started staggering at Itachi. Suddenly, Samasu lunged at Itachi with speed, and tried to hit him with the same whip that Mesu had left on the ground. Itachi reacted fast – his left hand shot out and he caught the whip in mid air. Wrenching it out of Samasu's grip, Itachi had the whip under his control. He whipped it back at Samasu, which somehow knocked him out.

"At least now I have a weapon," Itachi spat. He glanced around the room – Mesu and Tsumi were gone. "_Crap_!" he cursed. Itachi ran to the door and tore it open, revealing a staircase that led up. Having one last look around the room to make sure that Mesu wasn't still there, Itachi ran up the stairs.

When he reached the top, he didn't know where to go. He had reached a fork – there were two paths that he could take – of two doors. 'Umm…which to take…?' Itachi suddenly felt a strange burst of energy surging to his eyes. 'What's going on…? Suddenly, he felt something happen to his eyes. He blinked. His vision changed. Everything was now different – he seemed to have been able to see things more clearly, and more…advanced? 'This is weird…' Ignoring it, Itachi looked around. 'Something tells me that I should go this way…'

Itachi turned to the left, and continued walking. He read in a book to always trust your first instinct, and he did just that. He walked down the dark, gloomy hall, and started looking right and left. There was a mirror, and he looked into it, and gasped. His eyes were red! And there were some strange looking black dots in his irises too. 'What's wrong with my eyes…?' Once again, he ignored his eyes, and continued looking on. Ever so suddenly, a piercing scream erupted from down the hall. "_Tsumi_!" he whispered and he ran towards the sound.

At the end of the hall, there was a door. Itachi didn't care where the door led to – he just knew that Tsumi's voice was coming from behind it, and he had to follow it. He kicked open the door, and there was another hall. He sprinted down the hall as the sound of Tsumi's screaming gradually got louder and louder. There was one, final door. Itachi burst through the door, and saw Mesu licking Tsumi's bare stomach – her shirt seemed to have been ripped shorter by hand. Tsumi looked up and saw Itachi, and she immediately gained new strength. She kicked at Mesu, and it sent him flying backwards. Itachi ran over and untied the ropes that bound Tsumi's wrists, and she was happy to be free from the thick, painful bindings.

"How dare you, _bitch_!" Mesu swore. He lunged at the Uchihas, but was immediately stopped by Itachi's kick, which sent him, once again, flying backwards into a wall. The room was almost empty with the exception of a window that led towards a balcony door. Mesu was lying in an awkward position against the wall like a rag doll. Slowly, he managed to lift his head, revealing bloodshot eyes, and a twisted smile. He laughed like a maniac, which made Tsumi grab onto Itachi for comfort.

"Did you seriously think that you could kill me, Uchiha?" he said insanely.

"I had no intention to kill," Itachi replied slowly. Suddenly, Mesu picked up the shuriken set that he had stolen from his father that was on his belt, and he took out a shuriken. Then, he threw it with all of his might. The shuriken went slicing through the air like a bullet, and flew towards Itachi. Tsumi grabbed Itachi's waist and pulled him down to the floor on top of her so that he wouldn't get killed. However, there were consequences for her action – she landed in a position that almost dislocated her left shoulder. Tsumi cried out in pain.

"Tsumi, are you okay?" Itachi asked with concern.

"I'll be alright." She winced when she tried to get back up.

"Too bad you two aren't going to be together ever again!" Mesu cried as he took out another shuriken and threw it down at Itachi, who just barely dodged it.

"Dammit!" Itachi cursed.

"What's the matter?" Mesu sneered. "Am I too fast for you?"

'Calm down…let me think this through…' Itachi slowed himself down, and regained his confidence. 'I can do this…I just need a plan…' He was still covering Tsumi, and he got off of her. 'Mesu's good in long-range combat…and I'm good in hand-to-hand combat…so I'll have to get near him, and I'll be able to attack him.' Itachi thought it through. He had a plan.

"Answer me!" Mesu screamed and he threw another shuriken, which Itachi dodged with amazing speed. "What the…where did he go?"

Before he knew it, Mesu was on the floor, and his shuriken set was lying on the other side of the room beside Tsumi. Itachi was standing over him with one foot stepping on his back, and he looked murderous with his strange, red eyes.

"Get off of me!" Mesu screamed. Itachi looked even more murderous.

"Not after what you have done to my sister!" He stepped down on Mesu even harder. Mesu screamed in pain.

Suddenly, footsteps were heard coming down the hall. Tsumi used her strength to push herself over to the shuriken set, and she grabbed it. Now she had defense against whoever was coming down the hall. She opened the set, and found the word 'Kotowaza' written on every single weapon. Tsumi grabbed a shuriken, and brought her remaining good arm to bring it up to her head's height, ready to launch at the door if more of Mesu's gang members came in.

Itachi grabbed a steel rod that he found lying on the floor, and he held it at his side, just incase something went wrong, he would have a weapon.

Then, the door burst open to reveal two figures with ANBU masks on – one was male, and one was female. The girl pulled her fox mask off to reveal the mother of the Uchihas.

"Tsumi! Itachi!" she cried as she ran towards Tsumi, who obviously was in worse shape than Itachi.

The man pulled his tiger mask off to reveal the man of the Uchiha household. "Its okay guys, you can come in!" he called down the hall. Two more men came in and pulled off their masks – one was a wolf mask; the other was a hound mask.

"Itachi, are you all right?" asked his father.

"Yeah, I just got slashed across the face with a whip countless times, that's all," Itachi said sarcastically and rolled his eyes.

"Your son's just about as sarcastic as me," the man with the wolf mask stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth. "I'm Raimei," he informed the kids, "and this is my twin brother, Inazuma," Raimei introduced.

"Hey," Inazuma said. "You kids all right?"

"Yeah," Tsumi and Itachi responded in unison.

"Now what about this kid…?" Inazuma walked over to Mesu, and motioned for Itachi to stop stepping on him. Itachi reluctantly lifted his foot, and he collapsed on the floor. Inazuma picked Mesu up by the collar of his shirt, which was covered in blood on the front.

"Let me go!" Mesu screamed and tried to kick Inazuma away.

"Jeez, this kid thinks that he can beat me up?" Inazuma scowled when Mesu gave him the finger. "He's a Kotowaza, eh?"

"Yeah," Itachi said.

"God mom! That hurts!" Tsumi yelped as her mother accidentally pushed her shoulder.

"So sorry!" her mother looked worried, and she picked Tsumi up in her arms, and carried her out the door. "You're going to the hospital," she announced.

"Aww man!" Tsumi pouted.

Mesu's eyes followed Tsumi out the door. "Don't even think about it," Itachi growled at him.

"Damn you Uchiha!" Mesu cursed.

"Shut up, twerp!" said Raimei. He and Inazuma, the twins from an unknown clan, were left with their uncle when they were young. Their uncle passed away quite recently, and left them to live by themselves. They had black hair, well built figures, and looked firm and strong. Raimei had a slightly larger jaw, and Inazuma had a smaller face and was fairly skinnier, making that just about the only way to tell them apart. They both went over, tied up Mesu's arms, and they dragged him out the door, leaving Itachi and his father behind.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Itachi was busy gathering up the shuriken that were stuck in the wall, and he put them back into the set. "I think we'll need these as evidence," he said.

"Of course." His father continued. "Itachi, I think we need to talk about your fights with Mesu lately," he started. "I think that if all possible, you should avoid Mesu as much as you can."

"I didn't know that he was spying on us!" Itachi whined. "Me and Tsumi were sleeping on the lawn, and first thing I knew when I woke up, I was tied up in a clammy, dark basement, and Mesu was mocking me, teasing me, and slashing at me with a whip."

Itachi left an eerie silence. His father spoke first. "I think we should bring you to the hospital to make sure that you don't have any serious injuries," he said.

"'Kay." The two left the room, and walked down the hall, stairs, and out of the door. Itachi turned around to look at the building – it was an abandoned warehouse. "There is _no_ way that I'm ever coming back here again," Itachi said quietly as he followed his father to the hospital.

**Later that day…**

The Uchiha family – even Sasuke – was at the Midori Hospital.

"Isha, is there anything wrong with my children?"

"No, Uchiha-san, there isn't anything that's life threatening to your children. Tsumi just has a dislocated shoulder, and several bruises on her body. Itachi had several cuts and bruises all over his body as well, but they're fairly deeper than Tsumi's because his were cut in with a whip. I'll write a prescription for a medical cream for both of your children, and if they use it twice a day – once in the morning, once in the evening – for about a month, they'll be all right."

"Thank you."

"Mother, where's father?" Tsumi asked. She was listening in on her mother's short conversation with the doctor.

Her mother sighed. "Your father is at Hokage-sama's office to register a restraining order," she said. "Ten feet, I think he said he wanted."

"Oh." Tsumi looked over to Itachi, whose bed was beside hers. He was sleeping soundly from exhaustion.

"That's ten feet for both of you!" her mother continued. "That Kotowaza Mesu! He has no courtesy or politeness for others!"

"Morhwe, his whole clan is like that."

There was silence for a while. It was broken when Tsumi's father walked into the room.

"Fadur!" Sasuke cried.

"Shh!" his mother covered her lips with one hand, pointed to the sleeping Itachi with the other.

"Sowie," he whispered, and put his own finger to his lips.

"So?" she turned to her husband.

"Hokage-sama has agreed to the restraining order," he whispered to her.

"Thank god! Did you hear that, Tsumi? You won't have to worry about Mesu ever again!"

"Well, not really, I mean, he can still get his friends to get me," Tsumi said quietly.

There was a long silence. "I'm…going to go back to Hokage-sama and register a restraining order for them too," her father said finally, and he pecked his wife on the cheek as he walked out of the door.

"Repain ober?" Sasuke asked curiously.

"Never mind Sasuke; never mind." There was another pause. "Say, Tsumi…"

Tsumi had already fallen asleep.

**A week later…**

Tsumi and Itachi were allowed home. Tsumi, of course with a dislocated shoulder, still had her bandages and sling on.

"Mother! This thing is so annoying!" she complained.

"Tsumi, it's like that! Just wait until the end of the month and you should be fine," her mother repeated for what seemed to be the hundredth time that day. "If you're careful, you'll only have to wear it for about a month."

"I know already!" Tsumi rolled her eyes as she drank her orange juice from her sippy cup.

Itachi was alone in his room, lying in his bed. The cream really burned his face, but he only had to live with it for about another five minutes. 'I wonder…why Mesu did that to Tsumi.' He always cared about the safety of Tsumi more than his own life.

The window was open, and the gentle morning breeze blew through his hair.

Meanwhile…

Kotowaza Tanto was sitting in front of his TV, drinking deeply from a glass of wine. His wife, Kogatana, was out to collect Mesu from the hospital, so he was left alone in their house. 'Of course, Mesu was an accident – he wasn't meant to be born. The stupid bitch wasn't supposed to give birth to such a runt,' he thought.

"Tanto, we're home!" Kogatana called. She brought Mesu to his room, and then she came back downstairs to hear sounds of moaning and groaning coming from the TV. "Are you watching porno again?" she asked with a frown.

"So? What's it to you?"

"You know, Mesu's leaning all of that stuff from you, and he's only eight!"

"And your point is…?"

"He tried to rape some six-year-old Uchiha girl," Kogatana said.

"So?"

"Hey, geezer! I want to watch too!" Mesu had run down the stairs, and sat himself on the couch beside his father, who stuck his hand down Mesu's shorts.

"Tanto! What are you doing to my son!" Kogatana cried.

"Meh. I do this all the time, eh, Mesu?"

"Yeah," said Mesu. His mother couldn't take it – she screamed and ran upstairs to her room, and slammed the door behind her.

"Who cares about her?" Tanto sneered.

"Yeah! Who cares about her!" Mesu sneered after his father.

…

'I guess we really _can't_ change destiny, eh?' he thought to himself.

**TBC**


	6. Chapter VI: The Eyes

**Changes**

**Chapter Six**

**The Eyes**

Of course, we realized that Mesu is a total pain in the ass and a total pervert, Itachi has a mini-fan club, and the two siblings were damaged from the horrid encounter with Mesu's lot and the like. It's now a couple months later, and let's just say that they're all fine, and their schooling's going great too.

However, there are always the problems every so often about Mesu, but the Uchihas have grown to ignore them. Growing up means learning new things and the like, right?

"Mom, I'm bored." Tsumi was sitting on a sofa, watching her previously favourite television show that's no longer her favourite television show.

"Mom, imm boord." Sasuke was sitting beside his sister on the sofa, mimicking her laziness and boredom as she watched the mysterious black and shiny box in front of them.

"Mom, can I go out to play?"

"Mom, cann eyea gowut to pay?"

Tsumi yawned. Sasuke tried to yawn.

"What's with you two? You're doing the exact same thing." Itachi slumped past them and into the kitchen with a scroll in his hand as he rubbed his eyes with the other.

Tsumi jumped off the sofa and grabbed her sippy cup from the coffee table. Sasuke tried to jump off the couch…but got stuck. "Here Sasuke, I'll help you." Tsumi reached out to help the little figure of Sasuke, who refused her help and pushed at her hands. "Fine then, I'll watch."

Standing back, Tsumi watched with a smirk on her face as Sasuke tried many, many times to get off the couch, but failed miserably as he didn't want to fall and hurt himself. Crawling back to where he was seated on the couch, Sasuke waved his hands in the air to hopefully catch Tsumi's attention – his little cry for help.

"I told you that you'd need help," Tsumi teased as she picked Sasuke up and set him on the floor. Pouting, however, Sasuke stumbled into the kitchen and poked at the sleeping form of Itachi.

Walking over as she laughed, Tsumi watched as Itachi started slapping at Sasuke's little hands, and pulled at his miniature pony-tail.

"Aww, why do you guys always team up on me?" he groaned as he stood up and stretched. Letting the yawn escape his lips and his eyes water, Itachi picked up his scroll and sleepily slumped back to his room.

Sasuke pulled at Tsumi's shorts, and looked up at her with a "let's follow him!" look on his face and eyes. Nodding, Tsumi let Sasuke take her finger into his hand and they followed Itachi down the hall.

Itachi slumped into his room, followed closely by Sasuke and Tsumi. Setting the scroll down on his desk, he walked over to his bed and crawled under the sheets. Closing his eyes, he instantly fell asleep.

"Bother, wakie-wakie!" Sasuke crawled over to Itachi and prodded his face. Groaning, Itachi turned over in his sleep.

"Brother, leave Itachi to his sleep," Tsumi sighed as she practically had to drag Sasuke across the floor and out the door.

Walking – and in Sasuke's case, crawling – back to the kitchen/living room, the two were greeted by rushed parents entering the door, brushing sakura petals off of themselves, and muttering to themselves.

"That sakura tree's grown pretty large, hasn't it?"

"Yes, sure it has!" Looking up to see Sasuke crawling towards her, Uchiha-san smiled and picked him up. "Ooh, looks like little Sasuke's pretty bored, isn't he?"

"Mother, father, you were out?" Tsumi asked curiously.

"Yes Tsumi, just taking some measurements of the garden and such," her father replied.

"Ah."

A faint slumping was heard down the hall as everybody looked up to see Itachi rubbing his eyes with a bath towel slung over one of his shoulders as he walked to the bathroom and shut the door behind him.

"Poor Itachi, he hasn't been getting enough sleep!" his mother frowned.

"Yes, he's just like me when I was a young sprout," her husband replied, "Always into the studies of the shinobi way, I was."

"He stays up all night reading scrolls, too," Tsumi reported, "and then he sleeps during the day. He tries to, anyway."

"Poor kid," her mother shook her head as she walked over to the kitchen and started rummaging through the drawers until she pulled out a pack of ramen. "What are you all looking at? This is for Itachi," she informed. Then, her husband shot a mocking glare as he walked off to his own room, Sasuke crawled back to his, and Tsumi to the TV.

"Mom, I think I watch too much TV, she said finally as she walked back into the kitchen.

"Oh? What makes you say that?"

"I'm getting sick of all the shows and such. There's nothing good to watch anymore."

"Hmm…how about I make you some ramen too?" her mother asked _very_ randomly.

"Sure."

And so, Tsumi pulled out a chair and watched as the rock hard noodles started turning into something very soft and tasty in the pot.

**The next morning…**

Tsumi got up and walked to the bathroom. Only she found out that the door was locked, and somebody was in it. So she knocked on the door, said "hurry up!" and decided to wait. She waited and waited. 'Twenty minutes…_nobody_ takes _that_ long!' So she knocked again. "Ohayo, it's been twenty minutes, hurry up!" And then she twisted the doorknob and the door opened slowly to reveal that the bathroom was dark and empty. Mentally kicking herself, Tsumi growled and cursed at the doorknob quietly as she entered the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

"Oho!" Sasuke crawled into the kitchen to greet his mother, who was making breakfast for everybody in the house, as his father followed behind him.

"Ohayo," his father said as he walked over and kissed his wife on the cheek.

"Ick!" Sasuke frowned as he covered his eyes and stuck out his tongue. Laughing, his mother picked him up and placed him into his highchair.

"Ohayo," Tsumi said crankily as she walked into the kitchen and placed herself in a chair.

"What's gotten to you?" her mother asked.

"I spent twenty minutes waiting outside of the bathroom to find that there was nobody in there!" Tsumi complained. "Turns out that the doorknob got stuck or something, so I thought that it was locked and that somebody was in there." Scowling, she pouted as her parents started laughing at her foolishness.

"It's okay Tsumi. Accidents happen."

"But I don't think that was an accident, father!"

"Oh well, there's nothing we can do about it, is there?"

"Well…"

"So what did you want for breakfast?" the woman of the house cut in. "You have a choice between a bagel, toast, cereal, or a special bacon and eggs because I'm not feeling too lazy today to make them," she listed out.

"Bacon and eggs!" the two practically shouted.

"Sometimes I wonder why I even bothered to ask…" Uchiha-san said to herself. Then, she started humming to herself as she cooked the bacon and eggs.

Thumping was heard down the hall. Nobody even had to look for they knew that it was Itachi; holding a scroll; reading it as he walked; and walked into a wall he did. The force caught him off guard as he fell backwards on his butt and started rubbing his forehead. "Oww…"

"Itachi, why don't you take a break from your studies? You have school tomorrow, and I think you should rest for it," his father said as he looked up from the newspaper.

"Father, I'm trying very hard to learn these shinobi sayings, but…" Itachi trailed off to see that Tsumi was looking at him with an arched eyebrow, and Sasuke trying very hard to imitate her. "Sasuke, what are you doing?"

Sasuke closed his eyes and stuck out his tongue at Itachi and said, "Oho yoo too, big brother," with his tongue still sticking out of his mouth. He obviously mean to say "to you", but it came out as the spoken "yoo too". Everybody laughed at this – with the exception of Itachi who found it quite a waste of time from his studies – as they continued with their morning activities.

"Bacon and eggs, Itachi?" his mother asked politely.

"Sure." Itachi pulled out a chair and sat himself between Tsumi and his father. His father continued reading the paper, occasionally looking up at his children to make sure that everything was alright. Itachi was reading from his scroll, and Tsumi was busy watching and giggling as Sasuke tried to spoon his baby food into his mouth, but ended up spooning it up in the air and back onto his head.

"Sasuke…" his mother frowned as she brought the plates of bacon and eggs to the table and set them each in front of the remainder of the family that didn't normally eat baby food. Then, she seated herself in a chair and started to eat her own food – as the rest of her family started wolfing their portions down. Arching an eyebrow, she nearly sweat-dropped at the sight. "If you're finished, you can leave," she said with a smile on her face as Tsumi and Itachi stood up and brought their dishes to the sink.

"Arigato for breakfast, mother," Tsumi said with a slight bow as she ran off after Itachi to try to pry him from his work.

"Tsumi…she's so polite," her father said as he shook his head and put his own dishes in the sink. "I wish Itachi were like that too."

"Of course we do, he has lots to learn from her," his wife said with a sigh. "Too bad he's all like you though, always into studies," she scowled.

"It's not my fault that he turned out like that," he chuckled.

And little Sasuke just sat there with an upside-down spoon in his hand and a confused expression plastered on his face.

"Oh Sasuke, we should get you cleaned up," his mother said as she put her own dishes into the sink. "Honey, do you mind doing the dishes for me?"

"Fine, I'll do them," he said as reluctantly as a child the age of his _own_ children, and earned a frown from his wife.

**Meanwhile…in the backyard…**

"Itachi, why do you work so hard?"

"It's not my fault. I want to become the best shinobi of Konoha!"

"Even if you study so hard, you _have_ to take a break sometime!"

"Tsumi, you don't understand, do you?"

A gentle wind picks up sakura petals and they dance in the wind around Tsumi and Itachi, facing each other in their stance, staring each other in the eye.

"I want to protect you."

"Itachi…I…"

"Hm?"

"I know that things are going to happen in the future; bad things. I can protect myself though; I work hard too. Things come so easily for me though. Maybe I'll need your help once in a while. But for now, let me do things on my own." And the sakura petals blow between them during the eerie silence. "So how about having some fun for a change? School starts tomorrow again, so study then. But for now…I have other plans."

Tsumi walked forward and grabbed Itachi's hand. The abrupt action caused Itachi's cheeks to flush a light pink as Tsumi pulls him around to their front yard and through their front door. "Father, we're going out for a bit!" she called to their mother that was still trying hard to wash the dishes.

"Yes. Be safe."

Getting pulled around by a girl only one day younger than him wasn't his idea of fun. He followed her around town anyway; past the Yamanaka flower shop, the academy, and what have you. Soon enough, they were running down the street, hand in hand, earning the strange glances of passersby, laughing, letting loose, being free. They stopped at the park in front of the large, marble water fountain with its clear blue water running through it, and stood there facing each other, fingers linked together.

"Had fun?"

"It's better than scrolls."

And with that, Itachi leant in and whispered something into Tsumi's ears, making her laugh quietly like some little girl that had just lost her sanity.

"Yes," she said with a smirk.

Itachi cleared his throat. "So…" He wrapped his arm around Tsumi and they continued to walk. 'Timing everything out perfectly is a key to success…'

"Itachi-kun!" Miharu sprinted out of nowhere and dashed out in front of him, making a scene with the petals that flew about. "I missed you so much!" Running up to him, she threw her arms around his neck and nuzzled her head into his shoulder for quite some time. When she pulled away, she noticed Tsumi that was wrapped in his arm, with an arched eyebrow, staring back at her. "What are _you_ doing here?" Miharu pointed out.

"I should be asking you the same question."

"I-i-itachi-kun! What are you doing with this scum?"

Itachi laughed. "Scum? Tsumi is no scum. I wouldn't be talking if I were you."

Miharu gasped. She had just been insulted by her crush! 'He's only hiding his feelings! I know I can get him!' her inner-self held up a fist and looked up with a waterfall of tears streaming out of her eyes. Comical, yes. "Itachi-kun…you don't _really_ mean that! What a funny joke!" and she started laughing falsely.

"That was no joke. Go away."

"But…but…"

"Didn't father tell us not to talk to strangers?" Tsumi added in mockingly.

"Good point. Do I even know you? How do you know me?" Itachi had hit Miharu's weak point. Hard.

"How do I know you? You don't know me! What are you talking about? Which kid in all of Konoha doesn't know me? I am Ashioto Miharu!"

"Ashioto…Miharu…nope, never heard of you," Itachi said with a very, _very_ bored expression on his face.

Miharu almost fell over from the shock. 'Somebody doesn't know my name? My _crush _doesn't know my name? How can this be?'

"Come on Tsumi, where you want to go?"

"You want to spar?"

"Sure."

'My Itachi-kun spars…? I didn't know he even got that advanced! Sparring…I thought it was only for the strong shinobi!'

"Aww crap, I just remembered that I busted my katana the other day!"

"It's alright, I'll get mother to buy you a new one."

"Brother, I've gone through five katanas this past month."

"I'll figure out something. Besides, mother seems to have a liking to you anyway; same with father; and Sasuke." Itachi smiled to himself. 'And me…'

And the two skipped off towards their house as happily as they can possibly be. The rest of their day was pretty much fun and games. Itachi was livelier at dinner. His sleeping habits changed back to one of a normal kid's. And I'm feeling extremely lazy right now to write about it so I'll skip ahead.

**The next day…**

Classes started up again. Tsumi and Itachi showed up earliest in their class – the usual. Their stupid Itamashii-sensei never failed to show up until the last minute, while always claiming that he had lots of work to do.

"Yeah right," the shadow haired boy said.

"Hey, Uchiha!" Itachi looked up to see Jama walking up to him.

"Do I know you?" Itachi asked with mock stupidity.

"Hai, we're in the same class…"

"Oh."

"Moving on…I challenge you to…to…"

"To what?" Tsumi cut in.

"To…target practice!" Jama decided.

"What kind of target practice?" Itachi asked.

"Darts, of course," Jama replied.

"We're not allowed using shuriken or kunai yet, though _some_ people have failed to notice such a matter," Tsumi said as she raised her voice for a certain pervert nearby to hear.

"Hai, I accept your challenge," Itachi replied with an icy tone that sent shivers down everyone but Tsumi's spines, and made the unnoticed Miharu nearby squeal with delight.

"Meet you at the swing set in the park this afternoon at four. Be there." And Jama walked off, trying to leave an impression on people, but everyone had rushed to Itachi instead.

"Itachi-kun! Are you sure you want to accept his challenge?"

"Itachi-kun! You're not going to lose!"

"Itachi-kun! Beat Jama!"

"Don't back down!" Jama called over all the voices of his classmates, but remained unnoticed.

"Excuse me class! It's time to get settled down!" Itamashii called to his students as he unlocked the door of the classroom after many trials, and let himself and the rest of his pupils in. After his class had settled down, he decided to break out the news. "Class, I'm too excited about this! Please welcome our new assistant sensei – Umino Iruka!"

The class clapped politely when the young teenager stepped into the classroom, proudly wearing a chuunin outfit with black hair tied up in a high ponytail, and looked more like a practical joke. "Ohayo, my name is Umino Iruka, and I'll try my best to help as much as I can! I'll be in for the rest of the year…"

And Iruka continued talking for a couple more minutes about the usual – his likes, dislikes, accomplishments and dreams.

"Arigato Iruka!" Itamashii said cheerfully as he began to clap his hands, followed by the rest of his pupils who were only clapping to be polite. "And now, I have a second surprise for you! Today, we'll get a start on hands-on activities such as throwing shuriken!" That seemed to be the first interesting thing that this class has done the whole year, for they started cheering and got all excited and really looked as if they wanted to learn. "Now class, follow me to the yard!"

Itamashii led the way out the door of the classroom, and down the hall towards a staircase. Then, they made their way down and outdoors to the back of the school yard and into a restricted area only for classes – where the students practiced with shuriken and kunai. "Now, form a straight line!" The students, excited as they were, and to Itamashii's amazement, obeyed him for probably the first time the whole year. "Wonderful! Now, I'm going to get Iruka to demonstrate a few times on the proper way to throw shuriken!"

Iruka stepped up and picked up several shuriken, and started telling his little students the proper way to throw them and several techniques before he actually demonstrated with the shuriken the different techniques he mentioned. Tsumi, anxious as she was to throw one herself, looked over at Itachi and noticed that his eyes had changed colour.

"Itachi…your eyes…"

"Huh? What about them?"

"Tsumi and Itachi, please pay attention!" Itamashii called over with a frown.

"But sensei, his…"

"His what?"

"His eyes…they changed colours…"

Everybody gasped in amazement as they looked over at Itachi's eyes.

"Tsumi…your eye colour changed too," he pointed out.

"They what!"

"Tsumi, Itachi, please follow me," Itamashii commanded, "and you, please carry on while we're gone."

Itamashii led Tsumi and Itachi to another part of the practice yard where it was peacefully quiet and empty of other students. "Here, Tsumi, take this shuriken and throw it at the target." He handed her a shuriken, and she took it from him, positioned herself exactly how Iruka did, and threw it, striking the center of the target and splitting the board. Gaping in amazement, Itamashii handed Itachi one and he did just the same.

"Hmm…just as I thought…" he muttered to himself.

"Just as you thought what?" Itachi and Tsumi asked curiously.

"Ehh…never mind. I'll teach you how to throw kunai now," Itamashii decided. So he showed them, and they learned right away. 'Just as I suspected…Sharingan's kicking in. What about Tsumi's eyes? Those aren't Sharingan eyes…'

"Umm, sensei, it's break time," Tsumi interrupted his thoughts.

"Oh, ok then, uhh, I'll escort you back to the classroom to get your snacks and such," Itamashii decided as he led his students back up the stairs to their room, where all the other students were filing out, and Iruka was going to lock the door. "Hold up there, Iruka! You can go on ahead, I'll handle things here," Itamashii said.

"Hai. See you guys later," Iruka said cheerfully as he ran off.

"Umm…sensei, would throwing a dart be using the same techniques as throwing a kunai?" Itachi asked suddenly.

"Well…a kunai uses more force, so the follow-through is different – err, a follow-through is…oh never mind. Let's just make it easier and say that there really isn't much difference," he decided.

"Oh, ok then. Arigato." And they were off, leaving Itamashii to lock the door behind them.

"I think I should give their parents a call…"

**In the senseis; lounge…**

…Itamashii picked up one of the few phones at one wall, and dialed up a number that he found from some files he had to go through.

"Moshi-moshi," said a woman's voice.

"Ohayo, Uchiha-san?"

"Hai. Who's speaking?"

"I'm the sensei of your children at the academy."

"Oh, Itamashii! I haven't talked to you in a while! You could've just said that you were Itamashii and I wouldn't have gotten all confused for a while! So why'd you call so suddenly?"

"I was just calling to tell you that Itachi's Sharingan has started kicking in with shuriken practice…and he's already mastered the art of throwing shuriken; same with Tsumi. So I decided to pull them out of class and they seemed to have mastered the art of throwing kunai as well…"

"Really? I'm proud to hear it," their mother said with a laugh.

"Yes. Itachi's Sharingan, I can recognize…but Tsumi's eyes…they were…they went from onyx to almost an orangey-red colour."

"Interesting…oh well, thanks for telling me. My little baby Sasuke's becoming quite a nuisance nowadays…"

"Sorry for bothering you!"

"Ah, it's alright, it's good to get away from him for a while. Arigato for calling!" and she hung up. Itamashii hung up too.

**In the Uchiha household…**

…Sasuke was trying to understand what his mother and his father were talking about. "Dee eyes?"

"Never mind Sasuke," was all they would ever say. Who knows what little Sasuke was thinking about? He knew that there was something with 'the eyes' as he kept hearing, but couldn't pronounce properly. It didn't matter to him. He was happy in a family with an mother, an father, an brother and a new sister. They all loved him. He would love them back…if he knew what love was. It's all in good time Sasuke, it's all in good time…

**TBC**


	7. Chapter VII: It Was My Destiny

**Changes**

**Chapter Seven**

**It Was My Destiny**

Mind you, it's been a couple years since we last left off. I would say add around six years to the ages of our favourite little characters that are no longer little characters; but only soon-to-be-teens and have grown to be quite the troublesome kids.

"Uchiha-san! Sasuke's been stealing flowers from my backyard again!"

"I'm so sorry Matsumoto-san! I'll make it up to you somehow!" Feeling his mother turning to him, Sasuke could do nothing but cower at the shadow of his now-feared family. "Sasuke! How dare you go and steal flowers from the Matsumoto family!"

"Aww, mother, I'm _bored_!" and then he realized that that wasn't the right thing to say at the moment.

"Bored? _Bored_! Sasuke, do you know what you're saying? How can you possibly be bored? I'd say that it's very unfortunate for you that they raised the age restriction to attend the academy nowadays, but if it were like back when your brother and sister were permitted, I would make sure that –"

"And blah, blah, blah! I don't care! As long as I have another six years of freedom, I'm going to make sure that I _don't_ have to slave about with scrolls like Itachi did!"

"Sasuke! Why you little –"

"Oh, got to run mother, catch you later!" Sasuke grabbed his handbag off the kitchen table and headed for the door to hopefully get away from his mother.

"Where are you going?" she called after him.

"I'm going over to Shinji's place!" Sasuke called back as he pulled on his shoes and slung his handbag's strap around his neck.

"Be back by dinner!"

"Fine!" and he slams the door.

"Kids these days…" hearing the door open again, Uchiha-san heard Itachi and Tsumi coming in, talking about their most recent mission.

"Oy, mother!" Tsumi ran into the kitchen and hugged her mother.

"Hey, mom," Itachi said calmly as he slowly walked after Tsumi.

"Good afternoon, Itachi…" his mother sensed a bit of coldness in Itachi's voice, so she greeted him slowly. "So how was your mission?"

"It went great! For our first A-class mission, it went great!"

"What did you have to do on your mission?"

"We had to…uhh…what's that word?"

"Eliminate. Destroy. Kill. Assassinate. Shall I continue?" Itachi said coolly.

"Ok? We had to assassinate some high-ranked guy in the Hidden Stone," Tsumi informed their mother.

"Really? Did you guys pull it off?" their father asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"Obviously father!" Tsumi said with a wide smile. "Itachi did quite a lot of work!"

"It was nothing," he said so coolly that it sent shivers down everyone else's spines.

"Well, I promised that I'd meet Nara-san, Akimichi-san, Aburame-san, Hyuuga-san, Haruno-san and Yamanaka-san for dinner tonight. Sorry!" Uchiha-san said as he walked over and kissed his wife on the cheek before he turned to leave. "Sayonara!"

"Sayonara!" they said cheerfully – that's everybody else excluding Itachi, who just stood there and watched his father go.

"I'm going to my room," he cut in and walked off silently.

"What's gotten him?" his mother asked Tsumi.

"Don't know?"

Tsumi and Itachi have passed their academy exams, genin exams _and_ chuunin exams by the age of twelve. Prodigies really are prodigies. Now they're part of the Leaf's ANBU team, going out on missions quite often, for children are a great cover for the rest of the team.

**Later that night…**

There was a knock on the door. "Come in." Tsumi entered the room.

"Sorry to bother you, but what's up lately? You've been acting all strange since you got appointed as the ANBU captain for our team."

"Nothing. It's none of your business, anyway." He paused.

"Are you sure nothing's up?"

"Yes. Leave me be." So she exited his room, closing the door behind her quietly.

"The time draws nearer…"

**A week later…**

"Here you go Sasuke! Your lunch. I will see you after your shuriken lesson," Uchiha-san said as she handed Sasuke his lunch.

"It's not a lesson. It's training," Sasuke replied as he grabbed his lunch from his mother. "I'm off!"

'At seven, Itachi graduated at the top of the Academy. At eight, he was able to use the Sharingan. At ten, he became a chuunin. Right now, I'm the same age when he graduated. We're not at all alike.' Sasuke was lost in his thoughts as he ran off. "But I got the same Uchiha blood running through me as he does. My brother will not defeat me!"

**When nearing the evening…**

"Itachi, where are you going?"

"There's something I must do, Tsumi."

"Oh, ok then. I'll be at Ichiraku's ramen bar; meet me there."

"Fine. Don't worry, I won't be long." And Itachi walked off.

"What's gotten him?" Tsumi shrugged it off and walked off to Ichiraku's, sat down, and ordered and beef ramen. Then, she felt the familiar sensation in her eyes as the melted into a vermillion-like colour.

Then, something hit her. From a distance, she heard the sounds of screaming and destruction ringing in her ears. Of course, it was only her mind that had created such an illusion, but she knew something was wrong. And then a premonition hit her.

**Premonition**

There were shadows on the wall. One of a small, slim figure standing over a man, a woman, and two kids. Leaning over, the small figure looked into their eyes and they started screaming, and then he thrust kunai and shuriken at them, killing them instantly. The sound of their blood squirting out of them was heard as their blood splattered everywhere.

"Useless. No challenge at all. Only a couple left. Maybe they shall serve as worthy opponents."

**End**

Tsumi's eyes faded back into their onyx colour. 'That voice…I recognize that voice…' then it hit her. "Itachi!" she gasped.

She looked up at the waiter that had taken her order. "Waiter, cancel my order. Sorry!" and she ran out of the noodle bar and back to her own house. She didn't know what she was doing. She was listening to her conscience and doing what it was telling her to do. Tsumi always trusted it; it not once wrong.

**Meanwhile…**

The full moon was out. 'I'm really late from training,' Sasuke thought as he quickly headed home. Then, he saw a silhouette of a figure at the top of the light post. In the blink of the eye, it vanished.

'What?' Sasuke was confused. 'Right now…what is this feeling…' and it hit him. He looked down to see dead corpses everywhere. "…wha…what is going on…" he wondered aloud. "This is…" and he knew what had happened. He started darting home as fast as possible, almost flying into the front door of his house in the process. "Father! Mother!" he yelled as he reached opened the door.

"Sasuke…don't come in…"

Poor little Sasuke was frightened. 'Move! Move! Move!' he mentally yelled at himself. Carefully, he pushed the door open to see his father and mother lying on the floor in a heap; the moonlight cast across their bloody bodies from the windows, and a still figure standing on the other side of the room.

"Father! Mother!" he yelled. Then he looked up to see Itachi; the Itachi that he had always idolized, staring back at him with the Sharingan eyes. "Brother! …Brother! Brother! Father and mother! How come! WHY! Why did you do this…" Sasuke trailed off as the door behind him shut. "Kuu…"

"That was foolish of you, little brother…"

"………?"

"Mange Sharingan!"

Sasuke was as scared as never before. He saw things he had never dreamed of seeing. He was scared, shocked, angered, and feeling pain like his head was being ripped to shreds. He fell to his knees and grabbed at his head, hoping to stop the pain. "Agaahh! Stop it brother! I'm not seeing this! Why! …brother nooooo! Gyahhhhhh! Uka! Uaa! Stop it! Brother! Father and mother! Agaaah! Aa…Aah!" Sasuke couldn't bear to see it. He spat out blood and fell over on the floor. "…Why…did you brother…?" he managed to get out.

"They were just a measuring stick to test myself."

"…A measuring stick…? That's why…"

"…"

"…That's why…you did it…You killed everyone for that…?"

"It was very important for me to do so."

"…What for… That is…just bullshit!"

Sasuke lunged at Itachi, who punched him in the stomach, knocking him over and back on the floor. Sasuke couldn't hold it in any longer. He started to cry when he saw the corpses of his dead parents. 'I'm scared…I'm scared!' He got back up on his feet and dodged as Itachi lunged at him. "Uwaah! Don't kill me!"

Itachi stopped dead in his tracks. "You're not even worth killing…foolish little brother…"

'Oh no…I'm already too late…' Tsumi busted through the door. "Itachi, what are you doing! What have you done to the rest of the clan!"

"It was my destiny. As I have said earlier to Sasuke, they were just a measuring stick to test myself. Not a very good measuring stick, for that matter," he added in.

"Don't kill Sasuke!" Tsumi said as she landed neatly in front of Sasuke to block Itachi's path.

"He's not worth killing, Tsumi." Itachi turned to Sasuke. "IF you want to kill me…live miserably! Hate me! Survive through the ugliness." He paused. "…run. Run…learn to survive." A sly smile spread across his pale face. Stepping forward, he grabbed Tsumi's wrist. "You're coming with me," he said icily and he pulled her out the door with him.

"Sasuke! Be strong!" Tsumi said through tears as she was dragged out of sight, leaving Sasuke to collapse on his knees and cry.

**TBC**


	8. Chapter VIII: Awakening

**Changes**

**Chapter Eight**

**Awakening**

'Ow…my back…' Tsumi woke up from a long dream and rubbed her eyes. 'Sleeping on the forest floors isn't exactly what I call fun,' she growled in her mind. Sitting up, she yawned, stretched her arms, and slapped at the face of her sleeping partner. "Hey, sleeping beauty, stop sleeping like a lazy ass!"

"Aww, I was on guard almost all night! Cut me some slack for guarding your sorry self," Itachi grumbled.

"What was that?"

"Never mind."

Tsumi and Itachi washed up at a nearby creek after packing up their few possessions, and ate a quick breakfast of sushi and sake.

'I still can't believe that so many years have passed by,' Tsumi thought to herself as she burned the remains of their waste incase of unwanted company, 'since I became one…'

"Hurry it up, we don't have all day you know," Itachi scowled.

"Yes, coming," Tsumi responded. 'Maybe I should've just strangled him in his sleep…but he could easily kill me for it,' she contemplated. "Hey, I get to see him today. You promised me."

"I know. You can run along, and I'll just tag a couple miles back," Itachi mumbled.

"Arigato for letting me see him," Tsumi smiled as she walked over and gave him a hug, earning a disgusted-looking face from Itachi.

"What was that for?"

"What was what for?"

"Never mind." he rolled his eyes slightly.

"If you say so." Tsumi turned on her heels, letting her black cloak with a strange, red cloud-like pattern on it billow behind her as she jumped from tree to tree to avoid to be seen.

'I haven't seen him for several years since Itachi-kun…' Tsumi sighed, 'but I hope that he still wants to see me.' She made her way to Konoha where so many old memories hung around, as if telling her to regret what she had become now. She was an S-ranked criminal of Akatsuki along with Itachi. They were bandits, high on the wanted criminals list, now dating - for Tsumi was disowned when Itachi had killed their parents. Sighing again, she slowed down her pace and cautioned herself as she neared her hometown. Sensing Itachi not far behind her and having her back, she relaxed a bit.

'I am no longer a member of the Hidden Leaf; I have no home,' she reminded herself as she stopped abruptly on the branches of a sakura tree and fingered the hitai-ate upon her forehead that she had slashed across with a kunai. "I'm free now," she whispered quietly.

"Well, are you going or not?" somebody whispered in her ear.

Not even needing to flinch, she turned around to face Itachi. "Gone." Jumping off of the tree, she landed on the top of a wall surrounding the village for its safety without making a noise. Cautiously, she ran on the balls of her feet across the bricks and tiles in the shadows until she reached a well-kept house. 'This is it…'

Jumping from the wall, she landed quietly on the roof of the building, hung herself upside down, and peered inside a window of the building. Since it was still early morning, most of the civilians should still be resting, so Tsumi was safe for a while. Squinting slightly, she saw a bed and a lump in it. Smiling to herself, she slid open the window and slipped into the room. Walking soundlessly over to the bed, she squatted on the left side of the motionless figure under the sheets of the bed.

'My…he's changed a lot,' Tsumi thought as she reached out a hand and brushed a strand of hair from Sasuke's eyes. She caressed his soft, pale cheek and breathed in the scent of his house. Sasuke's closed eyes suddenly shot open as he looked up to see a blurry figure sitting beside him. Rubbing his eyes, he saw the one person in the world that he knew he could trust.

"Tsu...mi…?" blinking and rubbing his eyes again, Sasuke couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Is this a dream?" he slapped himself in the face.

"No it's not, Sasuke-kun. I'm really here."

He couldn't be happier to see her. She had changed; but so had he. Tsumi was taller, had more of a figure, and he had to admit, more beautiful. She was sitting beside his pillow, her back against the wall, the farther leg up and her arm resting upon her knee. Her other leg was fairly straight and stretched out, and her other arm down against the wooden board of the floor.

"I missed you so much," he said with a smile. He hadn't smiled in so long; mind you, he almost forgot how to do such a simple thing. Sitting up in his bed, he turned over, wrapped his arms under her cloak and around her waist, giving Tsumi a shocking hug, for she wasn't expecting him to do such a thing. Hugging him back, she kissed his forehead and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"I missed you too," she whispered. A single tear slid down Sasuke's cheek, and Tsumi wiped it away for him. "Missed me that much?" she said jokingly.

"Actually, I did." Tsumi grinned.

"You…my sister? What a joke! I think you were a lot closer to me than that," Sasuke said suddenly, and he leaned in closer and kissed Tsumi on the cheek, making her blush furious shades of bloody red.

"If you say so," Tsumi stuck out her tongue at him.

Watching intently, Itachi sat in a tree and peered through the window. 'He's making a move on my girlfriend?' his eyebrow twitched as he closed his eyes slowly. 'Calm…'

Back in his house, Sasuke was busy trying to make out with Tsumi, who just rigidly kept on blinking. When he finally pulled away, he looked at her with a sly smile. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," he whispered in her ear.

Tsumi was still sitting like before, only blinking at Sasuke's face that was right in front of her. She still couldn't believe him. He went to wash up, changed and then came back.

"Sasuke, I have to get going now," she said quietly.

"How come?" he asked. After all, he did have the right to ask.

"I have…things, to do."

"Oh, ok then. Promise me you'll come back and visit?" Sasuke pleaded.

"I will. Only if you promise not to rat me out on the Hokage and such."

"I swear, I won't tell anybody."

"I knew I could count on you," Tsumi said with a smile as she stood up and walked over to the window. Turning back to Sasuke one last time, she opened the window sill wider and jumped out, onto the wall, and back into the trees. Making her way through the same trees as she did earlier, she met up with an Itachi at a tree that had a look of disgust on his face.

"What was that all about?" he asked coldly.

"What?"

"I saw you sucking face with Sasuke. What's that all about?"

Tsumi gasped. "You mean he was sucking my face? I don't know what he was thinking! He just…!"

There was a long pause. "Let's get going," Itachi said finally.

"Going to where?"

"Back to where we were supposed to meet Kisame," he replied.

"Oh. Okay then."

"Don't worry, I'll let you off the hook this time, though I'm pretty sure that Sasuke couldn't resist and do it again," Itachi said quietly.

"It's not my fault; I didn't want it to happen!" Tsumi whined.

"I know."

"At least you know," she sighed.

"Of course I do. By the way, one question…"

"Hm?"

"I'm better than Sasuke, right?" Leaning in, Itachi wrapped his arms around Tsumi's waist and yeah. "So?"

"Of course you are. Sasuke probably doesn't even know what he's doing," Tsumi replied.

"Good. Glad you agree. Now let's get going." Itachi turned to leave, but turned back to see that Tsumi was staring off in the direction of Sasuke's house, not moving, and lost in thought. "Why must I do everything myself?" he murmured to himself as he picked up Tsumi into his arms and jumped off.

"May I ask what you are doing?" she asked him.

"Well, you weren't moving and all stoned out, so I guess I had to do things myself," he said with a devilish grin and leaned down to kiss her briefly on the tip of her nose.

"Are you jealous of Sasuke?" Tsumi asked suddenly, making him flinch and he almost dropped her.

"Look what you made me do;" he said icily, "I could've killed us both."

"Sorry, but I was curious."

"If you insist."

Itachi carried her farther, deeper into the forest, in silence.

"You know what I think is funny?" Tsumi said suddenly.

"…"

"I had a dream last night. It was pretty amusing, actually."

"And what exactly was this dream about?" Itachi asked with a tone of voice that said that he didn't really care.

"Remember when we first met? It was a dream about our childhood, except our relationship was like how it is now; boyfriend/girlfriend type of thing. It was funny, seeing our six-year-old selves kissing," Tsumi said and broke into a laugh. Itachi only looked down at her with a raised eyebrow and a disgruntled face as he continued jumping along the trees. "Ooh, remember that Mesu kid that used to hit on me all the time?"

Itachi scowled at the name. "Don't remind me of that bastard; we killed him anyway."

"Of course, that's the first thing we did after you pulled me out of our old house."

"…"

"Though I don't feel like talking about that night…"

"…as I don't feel like carrying you any longer." And with that, Itachi dropped Tsumi from his arms in midair, in which she did several twists and landed on all fours. "I see you're still in shape," he called to her as he continued on his way.

"'course I am you retard!" she called back and caught up quickly.

"I thought that you'd be slacking off a bit and needed me to carry you!" he sneered.

"What the hell?" Tsumi gave him the finger, and his eyes flashed dangerously. Whipping himself around, Itachi grabbed her by the waist and swung her on top of his shoulder. "Hey, put me down!" she growled and kicked at his ass.

"Baka, that hurts!"

"…"

Itachi very abruptly threw Tsumi at a tree off guard. Smashing into the hard trunk and almost having the wind knocked out of her, she landed hard on her butt and coughed out some blood.

Itachi walked over and kneeled down beside her, licking the blood off her cheeks and smacking his lips. Tsumi scowled. "Why don't you go and consume somebody else's blood for a change?"

"Because yours tastes so good," he said quietly and he flashed a sly smile.

"Whatever," she replied and rolled her eyes. Trying to pick herself up, her legs were too weak and she instantly fell back down. "Crap," she muttered.

"Need help?" Itachi smirked.

"Not from you, no I don't." After many failed attempts at trying to stand up again, Itachi sighed and scooped her up into his arms; cradling her softly, almost. Bending over, he gave Tsumi a soft kiss as he leapt off again.

**Later on…**

"You belong to me, Tsumi. Remember that." Itachi tied Tsumi to the trunk of a tree and stood back to admire her blazing eyes.

"Since when?" she snarled.

"Since the day that I freed us from the clasp of the Hidden Leaf," he replied and walked over to her.

"I didn't need any freeing."

Stepping over quietly, Itachi tilted her chin up to look at him straight in the eyes. "If I didn't free us, we wouldn't be able to do this." Pressing his lips to hers, Itachi slowly kissed Tsumi, and yeah. When he finally pulled away, he looked her straight in the eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"We were siblings, baka. That would be sinful and we'd get killed and kicked out of the Leaf for it."

"Not like it would matter anyway," Tsumi scowled as Itachi's finger traced around her jaw line. "Don't touch me."

"You belong to me. I can do whatever I want."

Managing to move her arm around slightly, Tsumi gave Itachi the finger, making him laugh. "Was that supposed to offend me somehow?"

And so, the two carried on with scowls, kissing, dissing and planning out things for the rest of the night as they waited for Kisame to show up.

"What might she be doing tied up against a tree?" the freakish man asked as he arrived painfully slowly.

"I tied her up."

"Hoshigaki, get me out of this crap." Obeying her commands, Kisame walked over and sliced the thick ropes with a kunai.

"There, now stop complaining."

"Arigato. So what'd you want us to meet you here for?"

"I heard that…_he_…wanted us to capture Kyuubi for Akatsuki. Is that true, Hoshigaki?"

"Mhm. He wants the vessel alive so that Kyuubi does not die before we can retrieve it for him."

"When do we move in?" Tsumi asked, rubbing at her hip where one of the roped had recently been fastened tightly.

"After some spying, yes, we shall move in. However, he wants Hayashibara to pull a fake cover until then, leaving Uchiha and I to attack together."

"So what the fuck am I supposed to do? Do some crazy Genjutsu for a while and use up all of my chakra in hopes of other faggots not hitting on me?"

"Precisely. Oh, and I purchased this a while back but never found the time to show it to you; I think now is the perfect opportunity. Hoshigaki, please, do hold her against the tree," Itachi asked calmly as Kisame quickly grabbed Tsumi before she could get away, and roughly forced her against the trunk. Walking over slowly, Itachi produced a collar that resembled one of an dog, fastened it around Tsumi's neck, and used some jutsu so that it would not come off.

"Uchiha, what's this for?" Kisame asked curiously as he let Tsumi go.

"Let me see..." Pulling out a pocket mirror, Tsumi had a look at her new collar. It was of black leather, red décor and metal spikes that stood out. A small, silver tag with the word "owned" hung loosely on a chain around a punched in hole. "Mmm…not bad…"

"How many did you have to slaughter for that?"

"Only about five stores of morons."

"Wow, I thought you'd have to go through more to find something as beautiful as this," she said as she inspected it once more.

"At least you like it; that's all that matters." Pushing her backwards against the tree once more – yes, it's the same tree the whole time – Itachi began…you get the picture.

"Watching you lovebirds is sickening," Kisame grumbled as he set up his own equipment for the night's stay. "Just don't go fucking each other while I'm around, got it?"

"Fucking each other? I haven't gotten to that…yet," the Uchiha replied, trying very hard to be sarcastic.

"Oh please," Tsumi rolled her eyes as she pushed Itachi away and picked up her bathing stuff. "I'm going off now, and I expect no peeping toms," she said slowly and audibly to the men, then turned around and walked off towards the hot spring nearby.

"Tell me that you aren't going to spy on her? Please?" Kisame pleaded mockingly.

"I'm not going. I have my kunai to sharpen," Itachi replied shortly and went to work.

"I'll just…lie here," Kisame sighed, talking obviously to himself.

When Tsumi got back a short while later, Itachi went for his own bath.

"You know, Itachi does talk a lot about you," Kisame said suddenly after Itachi was gone.

"Eh? What does he say?"

"You don't want to know."

"Then why'd you bring it up? Baka."

"I brought it up to tell you that he talks a lot about you, but not to tell you what he said."

"Whatever."

Climbing into her 'bed', Tsumi lay down and pulled up some thin sheets. Closing her eyes, she dreamed wonderful dreams of seeing Sasuke again.

**The next morning…**

"Hayashibara. Get up." Kisame kicked Tsumi's sleeping form in her lower back, causing pain to spread throughout her nervous system.

"Fuck you, Hoshigaki!" Sitting up and stretching herself, Tsumi stood up and walked off to the hot spring for a quick wash of her face and teeth.

"You really didn't have to kick her, you know."

"Then how do _you_ wake her up?"

"That is none of your business."

There was a long pause before Tsumi got back, changed and ready to go. "So how do you want me to look for my disguise? I can gather up some information too, you know."

"How you should look, eh? Hot. Sexy. Seducing," Kisame started to name off.

"Now why would _you_ be answering that question? I was asking Itachi-kun."

"What Kisame said," the Uchiha replied quickly.

"Fine. One sec." Closing her hands together and performing several seals, Tsumi turned into a girl that looked…more or less like herself.

"You didn't do a very good job of that, Hayashibara," Kisame pointed out.

"What do you mean?"

"I see no changes."

"Neither do I. Then again, she's already hot, sexy and seducing," Itachi joked as Tsumi walked over and slapped him.

"Haha," she said dryly.

"Now I'll have to get used to this face for the next few days," Itachi mumbled. "I liked your normal face better!" he whined stupidly.

"Too bad for you. Learn to bear with it."

…and so, our three little Akatsuki characters wandered off on their mission that consisted of trying to capture the Kyuubi.

**TBC**


	9. Chapter IX: Mission Accomplished?

Thank you all for the reviews! I'm really sorry that this update took so long, but I really lost my inspiration. If this chapter sucks, it's because I'm forcing myself to write it for my faithful fans that have stuck by for the past eight chapters. Thank you all very, very much! (Bow)

Oh, and by the way…if Tsumi seems like a Mary Sue for the next while, well, don't blame me. Somebody please inspire me!

Yes, well, my writing style has changed so much since my last update that it hurts to see how poorly I used to write. It's almost been a whole year since I posted the first chapter up, and I know that I won't have time to write more around then, so I'm going this early! Of course, I'm terribly, terribly sorry!

If I wrote something that was terribly wrong, please notify me! I'll change it immediately (i.e. something about Tsumi that was totally wrong, like her hair colour or something)! Man, I can't even remember what this story's about…so sorry!

* * *

**Changes**

**Chapter Nine – Mission Accomplished?**

"Would you stop staring!" she hissed and pushed Itachi off the tree branch.

"That hurt, you bitch!"

"Fuck you!"

"Anytime," he smirked and she pushed him off the branch right after he had climbed back up onto it.

"Oh shut up _please_?" Kisame sighed and shook his head. 'Working with these two idiots…couldn't somebody else take my place? I hate that bastard…'

"Oy, Hoshigaki! Will you snap out of it?" she waved a kunai in his face. "What do _you_ want?" she turned to Itachi with a glare.

"You." And he fell off the tree once more.

"I still don't see why you went through all the trouble of killing five stores just to get her that," Kisame wondered.

"She's my property," Itachi explained, despite how he hated explaining so very much, "and I don't want any of those idiots chasing after her like love struck dogs while she's walking around in sexy clothes."

"Arigato," she purred.

"You disgust me," Kisame spat at the pair as they started making out again. Jumping to a few more trees closer to the village of Konoha, he scanned around. "What did the boss say our target looked like again?" He received no reply. "Guys…?" He turned around and turned back to face the pitiful little village in front of him instead. Grabbing a kunai, Hoshigaki whipped it at the pair behind him. "Answer the damned question!"

"Aww, you bastard!" Itachi scowled. "I was having _fun_! Why'd you have to ruin it—OWW! What the hell is wrong with you!" he bitched.

"Your blood tastes good."

"I'll bet the Kyuubi's blood will taste even better if we can catch the damned shit sometime within this week," Kisame reminded her, and she leaped from tree to tree and landed in a back alley.

"Sayonara!" she winked seductively at her companions.

"Remember to give us any information you find," Kisame yawned.

"Don't go fucking other guys before I get to!"

She shrugged. "See you later, boys!" Walking off, the two men in the trees watched in fascination as her short and slick black hair blew freely against the wind and shone brilliantly against the sun. She wore a tight, black, revealing shirt that fit her quite perfectly; a really, really small skirt that was also jet black (and it made her ass look huge, as Itachi had noticed); and what looked like…combat boots. Her collar still remained on her neck for she hadn't even bothered to find a way to get it off of her, and Itachi knew that she'd snap it off eventually.

"I didn't know she had those clothes," he arched an eyebrow.

"There's plenty of stuff you don't know about her," Kisame said and rigidly cut himself off. He had said too much already.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

"You're hiding something. Spill the beans before I kill you."

"If you say so…"

**Back where Tsumi had run off to…**

…she was at a bar, with some sick pedophilias grabbing at her ass. Taking another shot of strong alcohol, she called the tallest waiter over, and tapped her fingers on the counter as she waited. Winking at him as he came over, he nodded very, very slightly. "What would you like, miss?"

'Call over the tallest waiter after three shots. Tap your fingers on the counter as he walks to you, and wink when he gets there. If he asks what you would like to order, order lemonade to go. He should come back with a paper bag and inside there should be a pile of documents and files instead of your drink,' she recited in her head.

"I'd like a glass of lemonade to go, if you will please."

"Sure thing," he replied and went back to where he was before. Tsumi watched as he ducked under the counter and looked around cautiously. Seeing as nobody was there, he pretended to make lemonade and put it in a Styrofoam cup. Checking once more, he threw it into a garbage can and came back with her paper bag. "Here you go, miss."

"Arigato gozaimasu," she nodded briefly and tipped him well as she walked out of the bar, punching a geezer in the face as she went.

…**in the forest…**

Itachi was tapping his foot impatiently. "If she dares to go and—"

"—I'm back!" she interrupted him. Making sure that nobody was following her, she leapt into the trees and handed Kisame a paper bag.

"Well done," he complimented as he eyed her closely and opened the bag. Pulling out a stack of paper filled with words and pictures; the history of the Kyuubi and its current vessel. "Excellent. A job well done," Hoshigaki smiled for the first time in ages. His smile soon faded as he saw Tsumi and Itachi on the forest floor, doing you-know-what.

"You sicko!" Tsumi screeched at him. "Go somewhere else!"

Doing what was required; he darted around in the trees and was soon out of sight. He headed for his own sources of information. The shinobi of Konoha weren't all good. He smirked at the thought of it. Gathering more information, he reached Ichiraku's ramen bar and saw the vessel eating away happily with a chuunin. 'So this is where he appears frequently,' he sniggered and hid his face well. 'Stalking this boy in his noticeable orange jumpsuit is going to be so simple!' The thought of it made him feel all evil inside as he ordered some ramen for himself.

**Back in the forest…wait, let's not go there. Back in Sasuke's house…**

Sasuke is, actually, out right now. Sorry, come again!

**Back at the ramen bar…**

Kisame was so busy eating away at his tasty seafood ramen that he didn't even notice Naruto make his exodus of the place.

**Back with Kakashi and his three man team of students…**

"Bastard! Don't aim so well!"

"Are you an idiot? What else am I supposed to do? Aim it at something like a tree?"

"You two, stop it!" a girl's voice tried to calm her companions down.

"It's no use; just let them fight it out," their teacher said as he sat down on a rock and started to read his adult books.

"Sensei! How can you say that!"

"Just pretend it's like a spar," he said and he waved her off.

**In the forest…**

"Will you stop biting me!"

"Your blood tastes good!"

"Oh shut up! You know what? I don't even know why I bother going out with you."

"That was harsh."

"Don't sneer at me!"

"I'll bet you can't resist—"

And a girl's voice burst out laughing so loudly that the fallen shinobi rocked in their graves.

**Back with Kisame…**

Kisame Hoshigaki was one fiend. He either had a little patience, or was willing to wait for days for the smallest little things. He was either really hungry or he wouldn't eat at all. And right now, he had little patience and was starving like hell as he stared at the little vessel bearing the Kyuubi in it.

Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were off having a little break as Kakashi continued to immerse himself in his book. The sun was starting to set, and the moon and the stars were already visible in the sky that looked like spilt ink; blotches of colour here and there, mixing together and then making something that looked entirely beautiful.

"Sasuke, hold me!" the girl said lazily.

'Ah…so that's Itachi's brother; the other Uchiha. They resemble each other…'

"Sakura, you're drunk."

"I'll hold you, Sakura!" Naruto offered, but was shoved to the ground.

"I want _Sasuke_ to hold me!"

"You drank too much."

'And he points out stupid things and makes short comments just like his brother…'

"Sakura!"

"Shut up, Naruto!"

"I'm leaving. Good bye."

"Sasuke-kun! Wait for me!"

Kisame watched the girl trip over a fallen branch.

"Sasuke…"

"Sakura, I'll take you home!"

"Back off Naruto! I want Sasuke!"

Bang.

"Naruto, you carry her home." Dropping the branch, Sasuke turned on his heel and walked off.

"Eh…?" Picking up the limp form of the girl, Naruto carried her off to her house, and Kisame followed him.

**A few days later…**

"Hayashibara. Get your ass over here."

"What do you want now?"

Itachi wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his lips to hers.

"I told you to get over here!" Kisame almost thundered.

Breaking free from Itachi's grasp, Tsumi approached him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him. "Hai?"

"Dammit, it's no wonder she gets so much information!" Itachi said aloud and got a kick aimed at his face, which he hadn't bothered to block. "That hurts, bitch." She aimed another kick, but he stopped it by grabbing her ankle in mid air. He thrust her backwards and she landed on her wrist with a crash. Tsumi kneeled down before a rock in front of her and stared at it curiously. The fact that she was wearing a mini skirt, her blood red thong revealed itself from under her clothing as she stuck her ass up in the air to get a closer look at the rock. Ignoring sneezes and the sound of rushing liquids, she went about with her examination of the rock.

"Hey guys," she started, "look what I found!" Turning around, she saw the two men lying on the forest floor in pools of blood; they'd been knocked out. She walked towards the two and kicked at them. "You're just as bad as those old geezers in the pubs and bars," she scowled and pulled out a piece of paper and writing materials. She copied down what she saw on the rock and destroyed it immediately.

Hours later, the two finally stirred and regained their consciousness. "Where is she?" Itachi rubbed his head.

"Seeing as her stuff is gone, I'm assuming she went to take a bath," Kisame pointed at the pile of missing stuff. Itachi stood up and brushed himself off. "Are you going to spy on her?"

"………" And he walked off.

Shrugging, Hoshigaki sat down near their stuff and started to wonder what would happen after they caught the vessel. 'We can't destroy it, but if it decides to unleash the beast…I'm assuming that those two can handle it. I can drain some of its chakra…but wait. I'm definitely thinking too far ahead.'

"_You pervert!" _

"_Oww!"_

"Those two…they'll never learn, will they…" Kisame sighed. "I know so much but I can't say anything…this is frustrating. Is Itachi going to pretend for the rest of his life that he has no idea what's going on? Is he going to stand by her side and act as if nothing was wrong?"

"_Stop it you sick bastard!"_

"_Oww!"_

'How long are they going to go on like this…?'

"_Let go of me!"_

"_Quit with the beating!"_

"_Let go of me first!"_

"_Stop punching first!"_

"_You bitch!"_

"_Ah! That burns!"_

"_Itachi!"_

'It's a surprise that the enemy hasn't found us yet. At this rate, we'll get demolished if those two don't learn to control themselves…'

A while after Kisame had fallen asleep deep in thought, the two came back. Tsumi was back in her regular form, and Itachi couldn't be more pleased.

"What a waste of chakra!" she whined.

"Shut up; he's sleeping." Itachi pointed towards Hoshigaki.

"Oh…I didn't notice."

"It's alright; it was nearly impossible to sleep with you two guys around, anyway," Kisame opened an eye.

"Ah! Gomen!" Tsumi chuckled.

"Right…did you find anything? I saw shards of rock near where we fainted," he murmured.

"What did you guys faint from?"

"Ehh…nothing!" Itachi lied.

"You're lying through your teeth, baka!"

"What!" he responded stupidly. "No I'm not!"

"That just gave it away."

"……"

"Back on track," Kisame interrupted, "what did you find?"

"I was busy examining a rock while you were examining my ass," Tsumi explained and the two looked away from her and hid their faces, "and I found another message on it. I copied it down onto a sheet of paper and then blew up the rock incase anybody was tracking us."

"Good move. So what are we supposed to do?"

She handed him the paper.

**TBC**

* * *

So what do you think about this one? I thought it was…I don't really know. It's kind of weird, I guess, but that could just be me. And here you have to review! Ahahahaha! Ttfn! Ta-ta-for-now!


	10. Gaiden I

Thank you guys so much for the reviews!

Here's a quick gaiden I came up with when waiting for my parents in the car on our trip. I hope you like it!

* * *

**Changes**

**Gaiden One**

_Itachi was always a short boy. I mean, look; for a seventeen year old kid, he hasn't grown very much in the past few._

_Tsumi, however, wasn't a very tall girl either. She'd often been mistaken to be Itachi's twin sister, but never had they bothered to discuss their growth. Sure, they'd argued a few times, but…_

He threw a stolen chicken down. "Tsumi, I got us some dinner."

"Dinner, you say? I already threatened a chef into making me a nice big meal, but I killed him afterwards anyway," she replied.

Pouting, Itachi cooked his prey and ate it while Kisame stuffed live and raw fish down his throat.

"Which one of you is the taller one?" he suddenly asked to break the silence, but had only realized his mistake sometime after his companions scrambled to their feet and faced each other, eyes blazing.

"I am!" they shouted in unison. "No, I am!"

"Hoshigaki, you make the decision!" Tsumi pointed out. "I'm taller, right?"

Kisame motioned for them to stand back to back, which they did, but he still couldn't tell.

"I can't tell," he informed them, and Itachi groaned.

"Use this to measure both of us," he tossed a roll of measuring tape to Kisame. "Don't let my chick get – _oww_! _Bitch_!"

"The bump on his head doesn't count."

So Kisame measured both of them, and they were _still_ the _exact_ same size.

"What the hell!" they screamed at him, who just shrugged it off and went to eat. His companions, however, wouldn't let it off so easily, and broke out into another fight.

"I'm older than you by one day so I win," Itachi smirked.

"That's not fair! You were born an hour before midnight and I was born an hour after! How's that fair!" Tsumi screeched.

"So?"

"'So?'! What do you mean by that!"

"Calm down, I'm taller because you're my property and the master is always better."

"_What_! You bastard! I'm only yours until you decide you want to take my—"

"Idiot! You're my girlfriend! That makes you—"

"If I'm your girlfriend, you should stop being so possessive of me!"

"I don't want to argue. I'm taller."

Kunai and shuriken and weapons and attacks flew about until…

"Guys, you're the same height. Live with it," Kisame cut in. unfortunately, nobody heard his noble words.

"If you keep going on about me being a possession, I'd rather run off and let Sasuke take m—"

"You _idiot_! Don't ever mention him! _Ever_!"

"See? _See_? You're losing your cool! Itachi is losing his cool!" Tsumi sneered. "I can kick your ass any day!"

He could only think of one way to solve the mess he'd started. He put a sleeping drug into a bowl and ground it down. He them poured as much of the powder as he could into a cloth. Approaching Itachi slowly from behind, he suddenly slapped the cloth over his mouth and nose until Itachi had been knocked out. Falling to the floor like a puppet without strings, as lifeless as can be, Itachi started to snooze very, very soundly.

"Good work, Hoshigaki!" Tsumi congratulated him as he approached her, and ambushed her too. Feeling the need to prank them, Kisame halfheartedly stripped off his sleeping comrades' clothes and stuffed them into a bed.

'That should do it!' he thought and went to get some sleep of his own.


	11. Chapter X: Decisions, Decisions

Wow! Thank you guys for the kind reviews!

I'm sorry but I feel that I should probably raise the rating up to M (recommended for 16 and higher). I don't want a writer's block or anything stupid like that…so I'm just doing what's best. Remember that you are not being forced to read this story anymore, and I'll warn you if there's something you might not want to read (in other words, lemons…but I don't think I'll be putting anything in this story anyway).

But thanks to the fans that have decided to stick around anyway:bows:

This chapter's going to have a little bit of Sasuke…okay, just killed that off, will you? There's going to be lots of Sasuke! And Tsumi, too! And when you put them together, knowing the certain perversion I put in the Uchiha boys in this story…you should take this as a warning. Okay, how 'bout I make it a little more official?

**Warning**: there will be ItachixTsumi and SasukexTsumi moments later in this chapter. A slight lemon, if you will…but I _will_ warn you because I'm a nice authoress. :kills random person in background that decided to snort at that comment:

* * *

**Changes**

**Chapter Ten**

**Decisions, Decisions**

"_You're mine," a deep, gravelly voice whispered into her ear, almost causing her to vomit on him. He wrapped his weak arms around her waist and kissed the nape of her neck._

"_Get off of me!" she screamed and bit her lip so hard in frustration that it started to bleed. He turned to her and licked the blood off with his tongue, and then it slid into her mouth, tasting her; exploring it. Her anger rose as she bit down on his tongue as hard as she could, and he broke the disgusting kiss off, yelping in pain._

"_Bitch! What the hell do you think you're doing!" he bellowed as he pushed her against a wall._

"_I thought I told you to get away from me!" she fought back, but it was no use; he had her cornered completely._

"_Since you're there already…" he smirked as he trailed off. Grabbing her arms, he made sure she was held in her position, helplessly plastered on the wall. Capturing her lips once more, he forced his tongue into her mouth and tasted her again; the sweet taste that he loved so much. Making sure that the same thing didn't happen twice, he kept her occupied enough so that she wouldn't have the opportunity to bite his tongue again._

'_Get…the…hell…off…of…me!' her mind screamed and she rammed her knee into his crotch area, sending him flying backwards and giving her enough time to run away._

_He lay in the floor, paralyzed from the momentary shock. "I'll get you next time," he muttered beneath his breath, "and don't you forget it!"_

The morning sunlight shone brilliantly, radiating heat from it. As it made its way through the canopy of tree leaves at sunrise, the birds started singing and the animals stirred. Our three main characters stirred, too.

Tsumi woke first, bringing her hands up to her eyes to rub at them. Sleeping in the forest night after night and week after week wasn't her idea of good rest. But Akatsuki had ordered her to do so, and she was going to obey.

Trying to roll out of her sleeping bag-like bed, she found herself unable to move. That was when she then felt a pair of strong arms around her waist, tightening themselves the more she tried to move.

"Morning, Itachi-chan," she whispered softly. It was a side she didn't show often to many people. "Can you please let go of me?" She smiled as she got a murmur in response and the arms around her waist started to loosen. Rolling off the 'bed' with success, she gathered her things and went to bathe.

Jumping from tree to tree to make sure that her tracks were even less visible, she made her way to the creek. Hopping off the last tree branch, she did a flip and landed on her two feet, crouching low to make sure that she had not been spotted, and that there was nobody nearby. After everything seemed secure, she straightened herself up and stripped off her clothes. Then, she stepped into the cool and refreshing waters of the creek and began to wash herself.

'A hot spring would be nice about now,' she thought as she washed at her face. When she was done, she sunk back down in the water and started to think. 'That dream last night…was it a premonition? Who was that guy?' Her mind was swarmed with questions once more, as it usually was. Pushing the thoughts and the dream to the back of her head, she checked to make sure that nobody was nearby and she grabbed for her towel. Drying herself off quickly and putting on a change of clothes, she picked up all of her stuff and made sure that there was no evidence around.

She hummed as she leaped back to their site, her hair still fresh and wet and her clothes slightly damp. Feeling the collar that was still around her neck, her lips twisted into a secret little smile. 'Itachi, I…'

"Hayashibara!" a voice broke into her thoughts. She recognized it as Kisame's. Tsumi picked up her pace just by a bit and made it back to her teammates.

"What do you want now?" her voice snarled in a bitter tone. Sometimes, she just couldn't stand that man; and she wasn't allowed to kill him! Tsumi landed lightly on her two feet and threw her stuff at the forest ground.

"Morning," a sexy voice whispered in her ear as its owner's arms made their way around her waist and he placed a few kisses on her neck.

Kisame's expression didn't change one bit. One could say that he was completely accustomed to it as if it had been a daily routine since the first days of his life – even though it wasn't. Instead, he cleared his throat to make sure that his existence was still being acknowledged, and continued. "As I was saying," he shot Itachi a glare, "Go to town and see if you can get some information off of Sasuke."

"What did you just say!" Itachi's voice became frightening, and Kisame almost shivered at his bitter tone.

"I told her to leech information off of your dimwitted brother. It's evident that he's so madly in love with her," he paused momentarily, "that he'll most likely tell her everything she – and we – need to know. It's a simple strategy, and I have a feeling that it'll work."

"Do I need to disguise myself?" she asked.

"No. Now head off, we still have other things to do." Kisame waved her off and she leapt away.

"Of all the people," Itachi started, but never finished.

"I knew that you would disapprove of the idea, but it was an order that we were to find information as quickly as possible, and we already gathered that he was a close acquaintance with the Kyuubi."

"I know," Itachi sighed and walked off. "Don't think of following me."

"Didn't want to anyway," Kisame replied as he looked at the information they'd gathered.

**Meanwhile…**

She tapped on his window after squinting to get a better look inside. Seeing a lump under the covers and assuming that Sasuke was still sleeping, she slid the window open and slipped inside.

The room hadn't changed much since her previous visit; mind you, it wasn't a very long time ago. Tsumi crept over to the mass of blankets and saw Sasuke's babyish, pale face poking out. A smile made its way to her face as she sat down beside him, stroking his soft skin. Staring longingly at the soft and comfortable bed, she sat there for what felt like an eternity, until his lips frowned ever so slightly and his brow furrowed a bit. Sensing his frustration, she stripped off her black, cloud-patterned cloak and set it aside.

"Nee-chan…" The whisper escaped Sasuke's lips as he suddenly tossed and turned. A tear rolled down his cheek. "Don't leave…come back…please…"

Her expressions softened as she pushed the covers off of him and picked him up. Moving onto the bed herself, she put him down beside her and rested his head on the crevice of her neck. Pulling up the covers back up and wrapping her arms around him tightly, she whispered soothing words into his ear. Sasuke's tears had started to drench into her shirt but she couldn't care any less. After a bit, he stopped twisting around and fell into a peaceful slumber while Tsumi stroked his hair.

'He was…dreaming about me…' She frowned and almost tensed up, the thoughts coming to her so rapidly and unwanted. Pushing them to the back of her mind, she closed her own eyes and fell into a deep, deep sleep…

_Never before had she enjoyed Sasuke's company like this._

A while later, Sasuke stirred. His eyes blinked a few times, adjusting themselves to the incoming light. For a moment, he didn't know what was happening. He felt arms around him – strong arms. Then he looked up to see the peaceful face that belonged to none other than Tsumi, and relaxed. Just a hint of a blush rose to his face as he wrapped his arms around her waist and snuggled into her. He enjoyed her company. But he also knew that she wouldn't spontaneously pop up in his room if she didn't have her reasons. It's not like that bastard would let her do something like it anyway.

He breathed in her scent; the sweet scent that he had grown to love. Pressing an ear to her chest, he heard her heart beat as she breathed evenly; inhaling and exhaling in a steady rhythm. Glancing up at her pale face, he smiled to himself. 'She looks so…innocent…' But then the thoughts swimming around in his mind told him that she wasn't innocent at all, despite how much she looked the part. 'Appearances can be deceiving,' it told him. 'I just can't accept it. I've known her for too long; she's the only person I can trust,' he reassured himself.

It was as if she'd sensed his self conflict that Tsumi woke up. Firstly, she rubbed her eyes with some trouble (she was only using one hand that wasn't immobilized), and then realized that Sasuke was awake and that she didn't have to worry about it.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," he smiled and kissed her cheek.

"Uhh…good morning," she said with just a hint of hesitation.

"What are you doing here? I know you have your reasons and its okay if you don't want to tell me," he said quickly.

"It's nothing, really," she smiled and kissed his temple.

'_Don't lie to him. You're my bitch and you're supposed to do what I want you to do.'_

"You mean that bas—_he_…let you come to visit me?"

"Yeah," she replied as she pushed her loose black locks from her eyes. "Oh, sorry," she said when she remembered that she was still holding Sasuke close to her.

"No, its okay," he said quietly and tightened his grip on her. "I don't mind."

"But I have to get going soon," she said suddenly.

"I know you have something to ask me. Go ahead; I'll answer you with what I know."

"Sasuke…what do you know about this kid named 'Naruto'?"

"He's an idiot in my team. A little childish kid that likes to eat ramen and wear orange jumpsuits," he remarked. "Why do you need to know?"

"It's…nothing."

"You know about the Kyuubi, don't you?"

"…yeah…"

"I guess that's all I can say about him. You probably know who he is, and I already gave you an idea of where you might be able to spot him. But…don't hurt him, please," Sasuke pleaded suddenly. "He's one of my only…acquaintances…that knows how it feels to be alone."

"I'll do all I can to ensure his safety. Thank you, Sasuke."

"Anytime," he said sadly.

"I have to go now," she said slowly as she released her hold on Sasuke and he let go of her waist. Standing up, she grabbed her cloak and held onto it. Walking towards the window, she sorted out the thoughts in her head until in one swift movement, something had spun her around and before she knew what was happening her lips were locked with Sasuke's.

His arms slipped around her waist and her own snaked up and wrapped themselves around his neck. She felt his tongue run very lightly over her lips and she parted them, letting him in. Tasting each other, they were completely lost in the deep, dark kiss. Sasuke pulled away to catch his breath and then he immediately kissed her again, his hands running down her spine and up her shirt. Tsumi ran her fingers through his dark hair as she felt his hands at the top of her skirt, slowly snaking down under the cloth to her lower hip. He pulled her down to his bed and rolled on top of her, straddling her hips as he kissed her collar bone.

"Sasuke," she whispered, "I really need to go now."

"I…I'm sorry," he murmured as he got off of her and brushed his lips over hers once more before he watched her jump out the window. He ran his hands through his hair where Tsumi's had once been, remembering the events of the past few minutes. Grinning mischievously, he went to change into some suitable clothes for the training he was to endure later in the day.

**_lemony_**

"What were you doing!" he thundered at her.

"You know very well what I was doing," she said icily.

"If you knew I was watching you, why did you keep going?"

"Why are you asking? You know the answer already." She grinned wickedly.

"Oh, _now_ I see where you're going with this," he smirked and grabbed her, pulling her into an intensifying kiss that was far more pleasurable than Sasuke's.

Tsumi felt hands roam around her body but she didn't care. She enjoyed every last bit of it as they inched this way and that, taking her in completely. Her back arched itself in pleasure and Itachi tore her cloak off. Pushing her down to the mossy forest ground, he placed kisses all over her neck as he hovered over her, biting every so often to mark his territory. Leaving marks everywhere, he lifted her shirt up and pulled it off, discarding it as more had been revealed to him. Seeing an opportunity, he tore off her skirt, leaving her in her underwear.

"You aren't the only one that gets to have fun," she purred into his ear as she threw off his shirt and placed kisses all over his chest.

"Oh, I forgot something," he said in a husky whisper and reached for something in his pant pocket: a leash. Clipping it onto the collar that was still on her neck, his lips twisted into a sick smirk as he tied her to a nearby tree and slowly worked his way down to her stomach.

Purring, her knees almost gave in to her weight and Itachi had to hold onto her; not that he wasn't already, but he did need to put a little more effort into it. He felt that he was going to climax, until…

**_/lemony_**

"Get a room," Kisame muttered as he walked in on them – _again_.

"Maybe we should just get rid of _you_!" Tsumi hissed as Itachi wrapped his arms firmly around her to keep her warm. Being terribly pissed that Kisame just needed to walk in right at the moment and then completely turning him off with his horrid voice; he wasn't in the mood to be nice. He grabbed for his cloak on the ground and wrapped it around his girlfriend, leaving her tied to the tree as he ran off to have a little talk with his comrade.

Tsumi shivered as the wind blew at her, the breeze chilling and frosty. The leash didn't go far enough to let her gather her clothes, so she was helplessly stuck there until Itachi came back. Then she started to think; 'Itachi or…or…_Sasuke?_'

**TBC**

Authoress' note: Okay, so that was my first shot as some lemony stuff. What'd you think about it? That is, if you actually read it. I think it sounds kind of pathetic. After all, I don't really have any experience in this lane, so I was hoping somebody could give me some pointers or something. Please and thank you!


	12. Chapter XI: Shall We Dance?

Right, so I guess this was a fairly quicker update than usual, considering how I thought that there wasn't really much of a plotline in the previous chapter, as I had just…lost myself in my music, letting my fingers type up everything in a flow. But thanks for the reviews that I got since then :bows:

* * *

**Changes**

**Chapter Eleven**

**Shall We Dance?**

_They seemed to cling around her more than usual. She sat on a bar stool, taking shots of alcohol, enjoying the burning sensation as it seeped down her throat. It was quite pleasurable, and her body hungered for more. The sexy waiter said that it was on the house, and that she could have as much as she wanted, so she didn't hesitate. Downing the contents of another glass, she felt her senses go wild as her mind was about to burst and she felt a hand slither around her waist._

"_Want to go somewhere else?" that same, sickening voice demanded into her ear._

"_I thought I told you to go away!" she got up from the bar stool and almost fell to the floor, flat on her face. The ecstasy of his hands roaming her body made her cry out, her stomach clearly becoming quite upset. Grabbing at the counters to support herself, she stumbled to the direction of the restrooms; more so, she walked into a room to find something to puke in. Finding a toilet, she bent over and released everything through her mouth, burning her throat severely in the process._

'_Shit…I'm going to be so sore in the morning,' her head ached as she stood up and stumbled to a nearby sink, washing her face and wiping the sweat from her face. When her headache seemed to have started to disappear a bit, she stood up straight and walked to the door. Stepping into the dark hall and turning around the corner, she felt something hit her, and she blacked out._

Leaning against the tree in her lingerie and a cloak, she strained to get away from the leash. 'I feel so helpless,' her mind scowled as she tried once more to break off the material, but it wasn't working. "What kind of idiot is he? And what the hell did he do to this thing?"

Crouching at the roots of the tree for what seemed like ages, clutching onto Itachi's cloak as if her life depended on it to keep herself warm, Tsumi shivered. 'Damn that Kisame…'

"_Where are you going, idiot!"_

"_Get back here!"_

"_Somebody help me…"_

"_Where are you!"_

The last voice echoed through the woods and a man burst into the clearing from the tree branches. He had astonishingly silver hair and a mask over his face. He wore a green vest and black clothes under it. The band around his head covered one of his eyes, gleaming in the sunlight. It took him just a split second to realize that there was a sexy lady tied to the tree in her underwear. But it was the cloak around her that caught his eye…

He landed in front of her cautiously. "What are you doing here?"

"My boyfriend ran off to hunt down an idiot that walked in on us," she explained calmly.

"I haven't seen you around before. Are you from somewhere else?" he asked her, gazing at her cloak.

"In fact, I am," she replied, "and so is my boyfriend."

"What is your name?"

"Hageshima Kobochi," Tsumi replied with the quickest name she could think of. 'I could be on a wanted list for all I know…'

"It's nice to meet you, Hageshima-san. My name is Hatake Kakashi."

"And it's nice to meet _you_, Hatake-san." Tsumi smiled a brilliant smile. 'You won't get anywhere if you act like a bitch,' she reminded herself.

"Please, call me Kakashi," he smiled.

"Then _you_ can call me Kobochi. Do you mind passing me my clothes? This stupid leash wouldn't let me far enough; I can't reach for them," she said shyly, a false blush rising to her cheeks.

"Sure thing," Kakashi reached for her clothes and threw them at her, noting that it was just a bit of a problem for her to try to get her shirt on. "Do you want me to cut down that tree?"

"Oh, please do!" In a swift movement, he sliced the tree down and her leash fell limply to her side. She put her top back on, and then her skirt. Readjusting the collar on her neck that she'd failed to remove – _still_ – she straightened herself up and looked Kakashi in the eye (well, the one eye that was visible). "Thank you very much," she said.

"Why do you have that cloak? Who does it belong to?" He couldn't resist; he just _had_ to find out.

"My boyfriend and I bought it in a store when we were traveling," she explained. "Why? What's wrong with it?"

"It's a cloak that has the same patterns as those from the group known as Akatsuki," Kakashi said quietly.

"Who are they?"

"They're a group of…just, never mind that," he cut himself off as she walked up to him and leaned into his face, her pearly skin closing in.

"How old are you?" she asked very, very suddenly.

"Twenty-six…why, how old are you?"

"Seventeen," she whispered in a seductive purr, causing him to gulp just slightly.

"Would you like some help with anything else?" he breathed out, but was interrupted when three shadows landed behind him: a girl with pink hair, _the vessel of the Kyuubi and Sasuke_. She gave him a quick glance, hoping that he would not blow her cover.

"Kakashi-sensei," the girl started, "Naruto was being an idiot! He ran off again!"

"More like he fell off a tree," Sasuke muttered so quietly that anybody hardly heard him, but Tsumi could make out the words with her sensitive ears.

"Sensei, who's this?" the vessel, otherwise known as Naruto, pointed rudely at the girl with the sexy black clothes and a leash around her neck. "Did you really come to find me, or did you run away to—"

"Don't be so rude, Naruto!" the girl smacked him on his head as she interrupted.

"Sakura-chan!" he whined.

"I'm Hageshima Kobochi, but you can call me whatever," Tsumi introduced herself.

"It's nice to meet you," the girl known as Sakura smiled sweetly. "I'm Sakura. Haruno Sakura."

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto bounced about happily. "But you can call me Naru—"

He was interrupted by Sasuke, who just grunted in greeting with his arms crossed as he leaned against a nearby tree, looking like he didn't want to have anything to do with the rest of his teammates.

"That's Uchiha Sasuke," Sakura sighed heavily and her eyes filled with lust.

"Err…right," Tsumi – that's now known as Kobochi – slurred out before she noticed Kakashi staring at her.

"So what are we going to do now?" Naruto broke in. "Can we call training off and show Kobochi around Konoha?"

"I second that!" Sakura grinned.

"Sure," Kakashi shrugged as the two kids cheered and dragged Kobochi through the forest by her arms. He followed them at a slight distance behind, watching intently…

Sasuke fell behind. He took out a kunai and scribbled some words into the fallen tree trunk Tsumi had been tied to. 'I think I should just play along…aside from the fact that she was just seducing Kakashi before we jumped in, and those two idiots will be around with him all night…at least I know where they've been all this time. Quite convenient,' he smirked as he put his weapon back into his little pouch and strolled off to follow his teammates.

Even though he knew he could easily put the blame on his raging hormones, he didn't feel like it; he knew his feelings well enough. Step by step, he walked through the forest some distance behind Kakashi, thinking. 'Itachi's shirt was…there…' His eyebrows knotted together. Then, he heard Tsumi squeal and quickened his pace.

**By the lake…**

…Kisame was secretly snacking on some fish while Itachi lay there, sleeping. His beautiful dreams were interrupted by a whack on the leg by his partner, who told him that his girlfriend was still tied up to a tree in her underwear.

"Shit!" Itachi muttered as he made a mad dash back to the direction of their little clearing, only arriving to see that there was none of Tsumi's clothes or anybody in sight. There was only a half-destroyed tree lying on the ground with a message carved into the bark. Fuming, he tore the piece off the tree and read it quickly, relaxing just a slight bit. 'She's with Sasuke…all night…I'll have to keep an eye on her,' he decided before he grabbed all of their belongings and headed up to the mountains.

**In the centre of Konoha…**

"Kobochi-chan," Sakura grinned, "we need to take you shopping for a kimono!"

"Umm…why?" Kobochi asked, though she clearly knew why.

"Konoha's infamous yearly festival is tonight! You _have_ to come with us in a kimono! Oh, _please?_" she begged.

Kobochi sighed. "Alright," she agreed, "but I don't have anywhere to stay tonight."

"You wouldn't want to stay with Naruto, and my parents probably wouldn't approve of it…"

"Come to my house," Sasuke suddenly spoke up, shocking everybody. 'Plans,' the half-siblings thought.

"Ummm…sure," she smiled. "Thank you very much!" He grunted again.

"Now that that's settled…oh crap, we don't have any money!" Sakura frowned.

"I'll pay," Kakashi said as he looked up from his book, "so go to the mall and look for something."

"Thank you!" Kobochi hugged him tightly, and he was quite thankful that he had a mask to cover his face with. His two devious pupils, however, sniggered as the third just stared blankly.

"Ooh…I see! You probably wanted her to stay with _you_, weren't you, sensei?" Naruto blurted out and got another smack in the head. "Saku-chan!" he whined.

"Even though it's probably true," she laughed as she grabbed Kobochi's hands and dragged her into the mall. "You guys can go to the arcade or something! Just meet us right here at dusk," she called as they disappeared through _the_ revolving doors of doom.

"I'm going to get some ramen and then head home afterwards," Naruto said quickly as he dashed off, sensing that it would be a boring afternoon and that his Iruka-sensei would want to get some food with him, too.

Sasuke just walked off without a word and Kakashi shrugged to himself, flipping the page in his book and almost gasping noticeably as he walked through _the_ revolving doors of doom.

**Kimonos 4 U** (please excuse random and horrendous name)

"Hoe! Kobochi-chan, you look so _cute_," Sakura squealed as Kobochi walked out from the fitting stall in a red kimono with a black patterning and did a few spins. "Okay, try this one on!" she giggled as she thrust a black kimono with a crimson pattern on its hanger at Kobochi and shoved her back into the fitting stall.

'Itachi's going to be around…I know he will,' her mind wandered as she stripped off the red kimono. 'Might as well find something that looks nice and will fit in Kakashi's budget…I don't want to kill off all his money within the first day I meet him! And he's quite a charming guy…' Pulling on the black kimono, she opened the stall and the other girl squealed at her again. Looking into the mirror, she checked herself out. This one was the best-fitting for her body, and it was _black_ with a _dragon_ pattern. That alone said it all.

"You _so _have to get this one," Sakura sighed.

"I have to agree," Kobochi nodded and went to put her regular clothes back on as Sakura went to get Kakashi.

"Sensei," she said as she poked her head out through the door, "we need you to pay! But I don't want you to see the kimono just yet; at least not until tonight," she winked as he got up from the bench directly outside the shop and placed his book back into his pocket. Grabbing his wallet, he paid the clerk in cash and then walked back outside so he wouldn't ruin Sakura's surprise.

Speaking of which, the girl was grinning madly as she rushed Kobochi out of the change room and got the clerk to wrap up the kimono. Afterwards, Sakura thanked her and then rushed Kobochi out of the shop to Kakashi.

"Sensei, we're good to go!" she grinned.

"Where to now?" he asked.

"Umm…I was thinking of taking Kobo-chan home to get her all prepped up for the festival tonight. You can just…head home?" the Haruno suggested as she skipped off with her new best friend. Then again, Kakashi didn't even notice because he was too busy reading his adult books.

**Haruno Residence**

"Kaa-san, I brought a new friend home!" Sakura called as she stepped into her house and took off her shoes, motioning for Kobochi to do the same.

"Oh? Who's this?" her mother asked as she walked into the small room and eyed the somewhat small skirt that Kobochi was wearing.

"I'm Hageshima Kobochi. It's nice to meet you," she said politely and bowed.

"It's nice to meet you too," Haruno-san said quickly and rushed back to the kitchen in which she'd come from.

"My room's upstairs," Sakura said as she dragged Kobochi all the way up the staircase to her room. Opening the door, she led the girl into her simple pink room – in fact, almost everything in it was pink; that, or green. She walked over to her closet and pulled out some make up and other necessities. At least they were for her. Kobochi didn't need any of this stuff; she liked her natural look.

They had a good few hours of time to pass until dusk, so the two girls chatted away happily, learning lots more about each other. They played some games while they talked about just about everything from a wide range starting from favourites to habits to hates to boys to hobbies to love and anything else that they could think of. 'She seems alright,' the Tsumi side thought to her conscience as she played along with her new identity.

When they had about one hour left, they started getting ready for the festival. They put on their kimonos – Sakura had a light pink one, which didn't surprise Kobochi one bit – and the Haruno applied some make-up to her face. The Hageshima, however, didn't see a need to it. They picked out masks: a tiger for Kobochi and a cat for Sakura.

The pair finished dressing up, and they looked stunning. Since they couldn't do anything about the leash and collar, they decided to leave them there. Sakura's mother gave her some money for the festival, and the two headed out. Arriving at the meeting spot, they sat down on a bench just as the sun was about to set.

"Saku-chan! Kobo-chan!" Naruto called happily as he jogged over happily in a messy, light-blue kimono with a fox mask in his hands. "You guys look great!"

"Thank you," Kobochi smiled. They talked for just a little while until the sun had started setting and Sasuke and Kakashi were nowhere to be found, so the trio put on their masks and headed down the street where the lanterns started lighting up and the festivities began.

There were different types of games and fortune tellers all over the place. There was the strong smell of food, and they were all having a blast. None of this was new to Kobochi; she too had grown up in Konoha, but she acted her part quite well.

As the sun had completely set, Sasuke decided to join them in his regular clothes, of course, because he wasn't really one for festivities.

"Kon ban wa, Sasuke-kun," a girl in a sexy black kimono with a tiger's mask on bowed to him before she removed it, revealing Kobochi's face.

His eyes went wide and his mouth almost dropped. "O-oy," he stuttered.

"Oy!" a more cheerful voice that belonged to Kakashi called over as its owner approached them. He was wearing a black muscle shirt, black pants, and his sandals. His black mask remained on his face, and he had an additional dog mask on the side of his head, too.

"Kon ban wa," Kobochi waved. The round, shining full moon was directly above them, it seemed, as they walked about. Sakura, who had just a little bit too much to drink, was drunk again.

"Sasuuuuuuukkkeeeeeee…" her voice trailed off lazily as she stumbled sideways, "Gimme a kiss, will ya?"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed slightly. "No." He pushed her towards Naruto, who gladly caught her and then carried her to someplace where she could be rested. The Uchiha, however, walked off elsewhere.

_You know I am here…_

"Augh, it's so stuffy here!" Kobochi wrinkled her nose as she coughed for fresh air.

"Follow me," Kakashi chuckled as he pulled her by her hand and they ran wildly down the streets, laughing. Sasuke, who was watching from afar, was not.

He dragged her all the way through a path in the forest where couples were kissing and cuddling and walking together. They ran and ran until they broke through the trees and arrived at a small creek that branched off the lake nearby. Stopping right in the middle of the wooden bridge, they panted and panted until they caught each other's eyes and laughed again.

"That was…amazing," she sighed.

"…yeah…"

Fireworks shot up in the sky, creating a beautiful sight. The two watched in awe from the quietness of the bridge on the lake. Kakashi snuck a few glances at Kobochi, whose face was lit up like a little kid that had just received a huge present. He couldn't help but smile beneath his mask. Realizing that he still didn't let go of her hand, he only grasped it tighter until she gasped and blushed.

'A fake blush,' she thought.

_It better be._

She noticed he was leaning into her, and the first show of fireworks ended. (This made-up festival is being bent in such ways to make it fit for the chapter)

_Come to me._

"I have to go to the restroom," she said quickly and she dashed off with him trailing after her in a stroll. He walked through the forest with all the sickening couples, and then back to the main street where all of the lanterns shone brilliantly and the people were all happy.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto's voice called him over on a small hill where Sakura lay beside him, still as drunk as ever. Sasuke was still nowhere in sight.

**Tsumi**

She made a mad dash off the bridge to the forest, running quickly down the path until she knew that she'd lost Kakashi. Then, she took a turn into the trees and hid within them, waiting for him to pass her before she ran back to the bridge, where he was calling to her.

_Come to me…_

Running through the forest, she made her way to the edge of the forest, where she broke through the shrubbery and then she saw two kids. They looked quite familiar, and then she saw that it was a miniature version of herself and Itachi when they were younger. The boy held her hands as he led her towards the bridge, her tiger mask covering her face.

"Open your eyes, Tsu-chan!" he nagged and she pulled her mask off and opened her eyes.

"Wow!" she exclaimed as the fireworks burst into the clear, night sky and she took in the beautiful scenery around her. "How'd you know about this place?"

"I used to be all alone," he responded quietly, and she knew what he meant.

"Aww…you won't be alone anymore!" she hugged him tightly and he kissed her temple.

The two of them heard music, and the little Itachi bowed politely. "May I have this dance?" He took her hands as she nodded and they danced happily, waltzing around in their own little world.

In the blink of an eye, the real Tsumi saw a figure in a hawk mask appear before her, wearing tidy black clothes and a cape. He snapped his fingers, and the two kids seemed to have faded away. It was so silent that the music from the main streets traveled to them and she heard the classical music that had come from many different and distant places.

"Shall we dance?" She simply nodded, and he took her hands. Leading her, they waltzed to the music on the bridge where the lights from the festival and the moon reflected on the surface of the clear, clean water. They danced a carefree dance, as if nothing in the world could stop them from having fun. He spun her in circles and she giggled from behind her mask, twirling lightly on the tips of her toes. Her raven black hair fell down from the bun that it was in, the breeze carrying it in the air.

She started to laugh. Tsumi was having far too much fun. Not having the chance to do it in the longest of time, she wanted to make the best of it. As the waltz music faded, she did a final spin and landed in his arms; his hands twirled her arms so that he wrapped them around her, hugging her to his chest, allowing him to breathe in the luscious smell of her hair.

Holding her in the position for a moment longer, he kissed her hair as the breeze blew his cape around them; enveloping them. Spinning her around, he pulled off her mask and she pulled off his. Itachi's face had been revealed.

"Did you have as much fun as we did back then?" he whispered so quietly so that only she could hear him.

"Yes," she whispered back just as equally quietly.

Itachi reached around her neck and took off the collar, tracing a finger over the marks he had left on her neck. Then, he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers, slipping his arms around her waist. Her arms snaked up his chest and found their place around his neck, but the kiss was delicate; just a tease, as she could tell.

"Will you turn back into my Hayashibara Tsumi?" he asked after he pulled his tongue out of her mouth.

"Yes," she replied. "Yes, I will." And he kissed her again.

Somewhere in a tree nearby, a pair of eyes were watching intently, filled with emotions; they were tranquil, solemn, and yet angered all at the same time. Their owner clenched his fists, not knowing what his next move will be.

**TBC**


	13. Chapter XII: Fade

Authoress' note: I am so terribly sorry for the long wait. My internet was down for what felt like forever, so, naturally, I had nothing better to do with my time than write, write, and write! So here's two chapters and a gaiden for all you lovely people that have supported me all this time!

* * *

**Changes**

**Chapter Twelve**

**Fade**

_Her eyes opened just to take a small peek, but saw nothing but blackness. They blinked a few times and urged her to rub at them. She tried to lift a hand but a sudden jolt of surprise shot through her arm, causing her to realize that she hadn't the freedom to move. A groan escaped her lips, which twisted into a pout. Not that the lack of light really had to do with anything; she nearly had perfect night vision._

_Thin wisps of highlights were spotted on what appeared to be the furniture around her. She examined as much as she could before her eyes felt the urge to shift away and look for things to help her get free. When she thought they could use a rest, she closed them and then commanded her sense of touch to help detect her surroundings._

_Only then did she feel that something was wrong—why was she so cold? Then it struck her: she was naked. Her body was exposed to who knows what, and she felt softness underneath her. _A bed…with straps,_ she guessed after trying to rotate her wrists and ankles. _Where am I?_ Her mind wandered impatiently. The thought of lying naked on a bed with straps in a dark room sent a wave of chills down her spine and she, quite suddenly, started feeling self-conscious._

_Willing her ears to take over, she concentrated as hard as she could to see if she could hear anything but her steady breathing. Inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale. The pattern carried on as her ears began to feel strained, and she tried to take some pressure off of them._

_After what felt like forever to her, she started drifting off to sleep until she heard something slither in the darkness, and she was fully alert again. The weight shifted on the bed and she felt hands touch her all over, gently caressing her skin. Soft lips pressed onto hers and a tongue slipped into her mouth, sending a tantalizing through her body._

"_Who…who are you?" she said breathlessly after the sweet taste pulled away from her mouth. Her right temple felt a kiss on it, and a hot breath tingled at her ear. Another hand ran between her thighs and her intakes of breath became shorter and more rushed._

"_You know who I am," a sexy voice purred into her ear, and her body started to ache as she tried to resist the temptation, and her head from thinking too hard, narrowing down a list of possible men._

_Opening her eyes, she saw a pair of glowing orbs twinkle in front of her own, and she gasped._

A week and a few days after the festival was over, Tsumi carried out the new mission given to her by Kisame: accompany the shinobi team that had befriended her, and gain as much information as possible about the Kyuubi.

She walked down the street beside Sasuke. Expecting Kakashi to be late again, they gave themselves a good two hours of free time to roam around to kill time.

"So what are your plans now, _Kobochi_?" Sasuke sneered.

"Oh stop it, Sasuke."

"Fine then; I will."

"I don't really know. I still find my mission utterly pointless," she sighed.

"Oh. So how is…_he_…nowadays?"

"Good, I suppose. But he's getting moody a lot." She frowned.

"It's because of me, isn't it?"

"…most probably…"

"What; is my incompetence to hate you infuriating him?"

"I suppose."

"He should know that, by now, I love you."

"Sasuke, I—"

"Kobo-chan!" a cheery voice interrupted them. They turned around to see Sakura in her leisure clothes, waving at them. "Sasuke-kun!" she grinned as she ran towards them.

"Saku-chan!" Tsumi grinned automatically.

"Kakashi-sensei called training off today," Sakura reported as she eyed her companions in their training attire.

"What the hell? So he decides to not tell us things now!" Tsumi scowled.

"I didn't think that someone that gave up being a shinobi like you would be so enthusiastic to train again. Besides, you're so strong! I have so much to learn from you."

"Actually, it's just that I need to get all prepped up again before Hokage-sama will give me my rightful rank as something other than genin."

"Oh."

"Kobochi, do you want to head back to change?" Sasuke cut in suddenly.

"Sure!" Tsumi rolled her eyes as he dragged her off, leaving Sakura behind.

'Come on, Sakura! You can beat her out! Yeah,' her inner self cheered in her mind, and she grinned. "I can do it!" She pumped her fist up in the air, causing the villagers to look at her strangely as they walked by. "Uh, there's nothing to see here!" she said quickly and chased after Sasuke and Tsumi.

**Sasuke's place**

"You did that to get away from her, didn't you?" Tsumi asked as she threw off her fishnet wear and pulled on a black tee and a pleated black skirt that fell to her knees.

"Obviously," he sighed as he leaned against the frame of the doorway and watched her.

"Do you _mind_?" she glared.

"No."

"You're helpless." He smiled slightly as she pretended to pout at him. "You think my hair's alright?" she glowered at her raven black hair.

"Yeah, yeah, it looks fine. I just don't want to stand here for the next three hours as you try to sort your hair so that it looks too fancy. Come on, I'm bored." He grabbed her wrist and dragged her out to the streets again.

**In the woods**

"I still hate you for walking in on us," Itachi whined like a little kid.

"And what do you plan on doing when you get her all knocked up?" Kisame snarled.

"Who said I planned on getting her pregnant?"

"It's going to happen sooner or later…"

Itachi's eyes narrowed and Kisame flashed him a wicked grin.

"I wonder what she's doing with Sasuke nowad—hey, where are you going?"

"What, I can't go to check up on her now?"

"Well…umm…"

"That's exactly my point." He got up and walked away.

**Konoha Mall**

Kakashi popped the remainder of his sandwich into his mouth and chomped it down while reading his favorite book. He was sitting in the food court where the smell of delicious snacks and meals danced about in the air. A beep sounded from the watch on his wrist and he marked his book and pocketed it. Then, he picked up his garbage and threw it out in the can behind him and stood up, stretching and yawning.

His one visible eye scanned the area until he caught sight of Kobochi and Sasuke walking down one of the long halls—together. And they were _talking_ and _laughing_. Something inside the grown man sparked and he was abruptly determined to wrench the girl away from his student, despite how fascinating Sasuke's unknown features looked.

To his momentary surprise, he saw another one of his pupils, Sakura, trailing after them, acting sneakily and not quite as stealthily as she thought she was acting, he concluded. After the pair passed with Sakura not so far behind them, Naruto appeared to be stalking Sakura as well—not that he was doing a better job of concealing himself than Sakura was, though people always had their eyes on him more so than Sakura, since he had a nine-tailed kitsune sealed within him. When the little line of his comrades passed by, he decided that he would do something that was intelligent by far and cut them off at the next intersection of hallways.

Unfortunately, he would have to walk quite a distance until the closest junction, and at a much quicker pace, seeing as how he had just started walking, and they were far ahead of him. So he quickened his pace and hoped that nobody would stare at him as he passed at a rapid walking speed while, at the same time, wondering why he was so determined to wreck his two students' relationship. Was he _jealous_ of the young Uchiha? 'No, that can't be,' he reminded himself. That would make her a pedophile and he was sure that she would, hopefully, know better than that.

Within minutes, the corner lot was visible and he sped up his pace even more so that he was there within seconds, even though he was practically running toward it. Halting with difficulty caused him to run into a garbage can, though he didn't knock it over. Kakashi straightened himself out and then walked into the flower shop, pretending to look around while glancing out the other window quite frequently to make sure that his timing was perfect. But why was he even going through all of this?

"Welcome, sir," the shy teenaged girl behind the counter greeted him. "We just got in an order of fresh lilies and roses. Would you like to see them?"

"No thanks; at least not now," Kakashi muttered.

Just a few seconds later, Kobochi and Sasuke were seen walking by, licking at ice cream cones. Seeing his chance, Kakashi leisurely walked out of the shop after saying bye to the clerk and pretended to look around. Strolling right into the path of the two, hands in his pockets, the three of them collided.

"Oy; watch where you're goi—whoa, Kakashi?" the mass murderer in disguise stuttered.

"Eh? Oh, Kobochi and Sasuke," he smiled behind his mask, though it wasn't visible. With the one eye of his, he looked down at Sasuke to see him sprawled on the marble tiled floor with ice cream squished all over his shirt.

"Good job, sensei," he muttered but wasn't heard over the noise of the other civilians.

"Ah! Sasuke!" Tsumi panicked when she saw her own ice cream cone, along with his, spilling down his shirt. Kakashi felt satisfied with himself; his plan had worked, _plus_ Sasuke's shirt was ruined. "Let me help you clean up!"

"Wh-_what?_" he blurted out and his one eye widened, but he remained ignored as she dragged him over to a nearby garbage can and started wiping the ice cream off of Sasuke's shirt. 'Now how did that happen…?'

"I feel terrible! I'm freeloading off of you and now I ruin your shirt? Ugh!" she scolded herself.

"You can stop doing that now," Sasuke said quietly as he grabbed her wrist in midair before she got a chance to start hitting herself. "It's nobody's fault. Besides, you're new in town and have almost no money."

"B-but…I…"

"Just shut up and suck it up," he faked a composed glare at her, though she could see a flicker of amusement dance in his eyes.

"Oh, alright," she frowned a realistic frown, despite the fact that it wasn't real at all. Then again, it's not like Sasuke was so dense that he wasn't able to sense it out. They looked deeply into each other's eyes and then started laughing. Uchiha Sasuke was actually laughing. That alone was enough to make Kakashi kick himself on the spot.

"Sasuke-kun!" a voice screeched, and Sakura ran over. "Are you alright!"

He only laughed harder, and she followed suit.

"Sasuke…kun…?" Sakura was scared.

He laughed even harder, and tears were rolling out the corners of her eyes.

"What's so funny?" she whimpered.

He was clutching his ribs, and she was lying on the floor clutching her stomach.

"Stop laughing!" she screamed and ran away with Naruto following her after coming out of hiding to see what was going on. Kakashi went to chase after Sakura, seeing as how his plan failed, and he felt extremely disappointed, though not knowing why.

Minutes later when the two of them had settled down, she managed to support her weight as she stood up and helped Sasuke after her. Together, they ran down the hall, out of the mall, and through the clusters of people on the streets. They reached his place in a matter of minutes that seemed to pass by so very quickly, and entered.

Tsumi plopped herself down on the couch and tried to catch her breath while Sasuke slammed the door shut and threw his shirt off. Discarding it into the laundry basket of clothes that needed to be washed, he plopped himself beside her on the couch and rested his rosy cheek on her shoulder.

"I haven't laughed like that in years," Sasuke said quietly; "especially when I didn't know why."

"I was laughing at how ridiculously good our acting was. That and how nobody figured out that we were even acting," Tsumi sighed heavily and rubbed at her sore sides. "Then again, it's not like it's honestly a bad thing though."

"That's true."

"What time is it?"

"I don't know exactly, but I'm quite sure that it's nearing dusk. Why?"

"He wants me back before nightfall."

"Oh."

"Even though I don't see why I should listen to him, I don't want him hurting you so I'm going to do it anyway."

"Why do you care?"

"But why shouldn't I? Why _wouldn't_ I?"

"I…don't know."

"I didn't think you did," she sighed and closed her eyes. A moment later, Sasuke snaked his arms around one of hers and cuddled closer. It's not like she minded. It just felt awkward.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, the arm he was latched onto started feeling numb.

"Tsumi!" his voice sounded worried.

"Hm?" she kept her eyes closed.

"Your arm…" his voice trailed off, and she felt his arms let go.

"What about it?" she murmured, but snapped back into reality the same second it started pulsating. Her eyes looked anxiously at her hand, and it looked like it was…fading…

"What's happening?" Sasuke panicked.

"I don't know, but I'm going to go see Itachi right now. I'm sure he might have a solution, or at least go on a mad killing spree to find one," she chuckled. "Don't worry; I'll be alright," she cooed into his ear and kissed his temple.

"Come back soon," he said quietly as she opened one of his windows and jumped out into the shrubs. "I need you…"

**Itachi and Kisame's camp**

"Where is she?" Itachi tapped his foot impatiently. "It's dusk already!"

"Shut up, I'm sure she'll be back soon." Kisame rolled his eyes.

"Itachi? _Itachi!_" Tsumi's voice called out.

"I see you're back already. You're early, even. Good job," he grinned sheepishly.

"My arm was pulsating! And then it started to fade," she said quickly and the grin fell off his face right away.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" Kisame slurred.

"I'm one hundred percent sure that I wasn't dreaming, drunk, or high on anything," she scowled at him, and he shut up.

"Do you think it has anything to do with—?"

"Shut up, Hoshigaki. You're merely stating the obvious here," Tsumi snarled at him.

"Alright, alright," he sighed, "but still; I was wondering if you guys could live your lives without having to worry about it and—" He got cut off by two pairs of glaring eyes.

"The only one who knows anything of this is _him_," her voice lowered.

"We can't see him right now though. Do you think you can hold out until the next full moon?"

"That's in…a fortnight?"

"That's about it."

"I can try…"

"Alright, then it's settled. For now, just go to sleep," he said and he kissed her quickly.

She pulled out her sleeping bag and laid it down on the forest ground. Then she climbed into it and zipped it shut as Itachi kissed her again and stroked her hair until she fell into a rough sleep.

_Tsumi groaned as the unwanted sunlight managed to shine her eyes. She rolled off her back and onto her stomach, squishing her breasts in the process. Scowling, she sat up and rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms, feeling her loose tee with a wide cut slip off one of her shoulders._

_She opened her eyes to see herself on a fancy four-poster bed, the sheets sprawled around and messed up. Her nose picked up the stench of sex and she suddenly became awake and alert. Looking down at the sheets, she saw stains all over them and her eyes widened as she stumbled for the side of the bed, tripping over a lump under the sheets. She recollected her calmness and then grabbed at the sheets, throwing them to the floor._

_The sight threw a lurch of fear and panic at her heart; feelings completely new to her. Feeling surprised and confused, she fell on her knees and gripped at her ears, hearing a pounding in them that was uneven and rapidly speeding up. Her breaths shortened and her breathing sped up as well._

'_What's happening to me?'_

She shot up from her sleep and looked around her, making sure that she was still in the forest, sleeping in her sleeping bag with Itachi beside her. Waiting for her hitched breaths to even out, she lay back down again, but couldn't get back to sleep.

'A premonition…?'

**TBC**


	14. Chapter XIII: Clash

**Changes**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Clash**

_She suddenly felt lonely. The presence before her had disappeared._

"_Anata wa…soko ni imasu ka?" she called out repeatedly, quietly and slowly. Remembering that she was in Japan, she needed to use all of her knowledge to help her. Yet, the voice spoke to her in English…_

"_Are you there?" she asked again. Before she knew what was happening, she felt movement. The entire bed felt like it was moving. It sped up gradually, and when the speeds felt high, she braced herself for the impact of whatever was going to occur._

"How was your night?" asked Sasuke.

"It was alright."

"Your arm…"

"Oh, this?" Tsumi asked as she held up her forearm. "We might have a solution, but I have to wait a fortnight until we can do anything to help it."

"What's happening?"

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Okay."

She was seated beside him at his little kitchen table as they ate their breakfast.

"Do we have training today?" she asked to ease the tension in the air.

"No."

"So what do you want to do?"

"…" Sasuke fell silent, and she took the hint and concentrated more on eating. When she was finished, she picked up her dishes and brought them to the sink and started to wash them up. He joined her soon afterwards.

After minutes of rinsing, scrubbing, more rinsing and towel drying, they wiped their hands on a dish rag and plopped themselves down on the couch. Tsumi picked up the daily papers and Sasuke turned on the television to watch a rerun of last night's episode of his favorite series.

Soon after commencing, they became quite bored, as things become dull quite swiftly.

"What are we going to _do_ for the rest of the day?" she whined. "I hate that stupid man and his spontaneously being lazy!" Tsumi picked up a pillow and chucked it at the wall.

"Throwing pillows around isn't going to help solve anything."

"I know! I'm going to gather more information for Kisame," she sighed. "Are you going to help me?"

"…I don't know…"

"Okay. I'm leaving." She opened the ever handy window and hopped out, as frequently done before. Suddenly feeling adventurous, Sasuke decided to follow her.

**Forest**

She moved swiftly through the canopy of tall trees, though completely aware that she was being followed. It's not that she cared though, she told herself, but Itachi might not like the idea of another encounter with his pathetic little brother—_their_ brother.

"_Shut up, Hoshigaki! It's not my fault that the fish was the only thing left to eat!"_

"_You could get off your lazy ass and get your _own_ food, dumb-ass!"_

"_Why you…!"_

Tsumi grabbed onto the nearest tree and clung onto it as a mini explosion erupted. It shielded her from the impact and a dozen kunai flying in her direction.

"Boys, stop it!" she screeched and jumped into the mess to separate the two men. "What do I need to do, buy pacifiers for you two to suck on so you'll shut up and stop throwing shit at each other!"

"It's your _koibito_'s fault and you know it!" Kisame roared as he pointed an accusing finger at Itachi.

"You're both so helpless," she sighed and rubbed her temples. "By the way, Sasuke, I know you were following me. You can come out now."

A shadow emerged from the shrubs and Sasuke revealed himself. His eyes flashed red as Sharingan activated, and he glared at Itachi, who merely smirked back at him.

"Well, if it isn't little Sasuke," he chuckled.

"Why did you follow me?" asked Tsumi.

"Oh, but why not? I felt adventurous," Sasuke replied as he walked towards Tsumi and faced her.

"Hmm…you two _do_ look alike," Kisame suddenly cut in. "And Hayashibara makes the triplet. What a lovely family reunion!" He earned nothing but three hard, cold glares at him, causing him to shut up and never use such poor sarcasm to make a joke—like usual.

"I think it's about time to settle things," Itachi said coldly as he walked over to where Tsumi was standing and wrapped his arm around her waist. "Keep your hands off _my_ girl."

"Don't see 'm doing anything about Kakashi," Tsumi muttered.

"He can be dealt with later," he cooed into her ear.

'It's wrong to like either of them…get away,' her conscience told her, but she decided to ignore it. 'They're your adoptive siblings. You can't like them…' She shut her eyes. 'Shut up. Nobody asked your opinion!'

"_Ah! Naruto! Get away!"_

"_No, Sakura-chan!"_

"_Stop chasing me!"_

"_No!"_

"_Seriously Naruto, this isn't funny anymore! Cut it out!"_

"You hear that? The vessel is coming right this way," Kisame smirked.

"Naruto…Sakura…" She looked down in shame. "But what about you?" she asked Itachi worriedly.

A rustling was heard in the bushes and trees, gradually growing louder and louder as it came.

"_Stop it! Please? Naruto…Naruto!"_

In a fluid motion, Itachi and Kisame swept up their belongings and disappeared into the shadows just as Sakura burst into the clearing from the green. She tripped over a fallen branch and landed right beside the pair, who looked up at her.

"Ah! Kobo-chan and…Sasuke…kun…?"

Tsumi looked away.

"It isn't what it looks like, Sakura," Sasuke said hurriedly.

"Then what is it, Sasuke? You tell me!" she yelled out as tears formed in her eyes and Naruto came running toward them.

"What's going on!" he asked forcefully. "What did you do to Sakura?" But he got no reply. Naruto grabbed pushed Sasuke over and grabbed him by the collar, picking him up from the ground. "Answer me!" he spat in his face, fury growing in his eyes as he became more frustrated.

"We didn't do anything to Sakura," Tsumi said silently. "We were talking before she ran into us and started crying."

"You two must have been doing something other than talking!" Naruto hollered at the other boy. "What did you do!"

Sasuke remained silent once more.

"It wasn't his fault."

"Then whose fault _was_ it, _yours?_" Naruto cried.

"It was nobody's fault."

"You're lying! I knew there was something up with you and Sasuke since the day I met you! You of all people should know Sakura's feelings towards him! Why did you have to team up against her like that?"

"Naruto…stop it…"

"Sakura-chan, are you alright?" he asked anxiously as he rushed over to his fallen comrade and helped her sit up.

"I'm fine. It wasn't either of their faults. I just ran in and I thought…I thought that they…they…"

"Shh…it'll be alright, Sakura-chan. Let's take you home," Naruto bustled as he helped her to her feet and guided her back to the village, though not forgetting to give the other two a quick glare before he was out of sight.

"So tell me…she thought she walked in on us?" Sasuke asked softly.

"Yeah…"

"Good job you two!" bellowed Kisame, who was coming out from hiding with Itachi behind him.

"I wonder what she would have thought if I was there instead of Sasuke," Itachi murmured to himself.

"I doubt she would care if it was you," Tsumi shot at him.

"Whoa! What's wrong?" he asked as he went over and pulled her close to him.

"Ahem," Kisame cleared his throat. "I think it's about time that we moved our camp elsewhere so that we won't get ambushed," he chuckled, eyeballing Sasuke.

"Sasuke, I think you should leave," she said as she looked down. "Please don't follow me again."

"…only for you, nee-chan," he whispered as he walked away.

After he was gone, she leaned into Itachi and hugged him tightly. "I'm so lost," she whispered hoarsely. "I don't want to hurt him again…" She sobbed as Itachi stroked her hair lightly.

"Are you going to carry the mission out or not?" Kisame asked, but was answered with an unexpected kunai that dug its way deep into his arm. "Bitch, what was that for!"

"Don't bother her about the mission at a time like this!" Itachi glared icily and retrieved his kunai. "Do it again and I'll make sure it hits your heart next time." Then, he led Tsumi to the creek nearby.

"Stupid lovebirds keep getting in the way," Kisame cursed to the skies and went to take a nap.

**Naruto's place**

"I know my place isn't really anything, but you can stay here if you want," Naruto offered.

"Arigatou, Naruto," Sakura thanked meekly while he hugged her tightly and set her down on the couch.

"Here." He handed her a box of tissues, which she accepted and started dabbing her eyes.

She started talking when she had finally calmed down and drenched blotches in his shirt. "Gomen, Naruto. I feel horrible. You're always there for me, and all I care is a-ab-about-t Sasuke," she choked out.

"It's alright. That's what friends are for!" he grinned, and she smiled slightly, too.

**Hokage's office**

"Kakashi, tell me. Should I give Hageshima Kobochi a jounin rank? Strangely, her shinobi abilities are so…"

"I'm suspicious of her. When I first met her, she was draped in an Akatsuki cloak, claiming that she bought it in a store with her boyfriend when they were traveling. She also had a dog collar on her neck, and was stuck to a tree."

"Now what boyfriend would do that?" Tsunade asked openly. "Only a deranged and obsessive lover would go that far…"

"But the Akatsuki cloak," Kakashi reminded.

"The only way I can come to a conclusion about that is if we asked her where she got it. Until then, keep on her trail, stick near her, talk to her more—I don't know, just do what you can to find out more about her. Got it?"

"Mm-hmm."

"You are dismissed."

Kakashi nodded slightly and turned to walk out of the room, only to be stopped by Tsunade again.

"Kakashi," she said, "be careful."

Then he was gone.

**TBC**


	15. Gaiden II

**Changes**

**Gaiden Two**

_One character that didn't appear so frequently in this story was Ashioto Miharu, one of the original characters invented to make the story seem more interesting and slightly more comical. Other than being mentioned to be one of Tsumi and Itachi's classmates with a scene here or there, she seemed to have been forgotten._

_She was the prettiest—but definitely not the smartest—of the girls in their class. Then again, what she lacked in brains and skill was made up for in popularity. She ran for anything that would give her another boost up the social scale, even though she knew that she wouldn't need it, she still liked to be the teacher's pet, beating even the nerds at that game._

_Miharu still had her posse of girl friends (Harawata Kawa, Yakume Hana, and Mokuroku Suru and Tamaru). After all growing up to stop pursuing their shinobi dreams and do other girly things, they do have the occasional slumber party._

_This is their story, since they lacked screen time so severely before._

The telephone rang.

"Moshi-moshi?" a seventeen year old Harawata Kawa said sleepily into the phone.

"Hi Kawa, Miharu speaking. I was wondering if you wanted to have another get together at my place this weekend with the other girls."

"Oh cool! That sounds pretty great. I'm free all weekend and my parents are too busy with their crap to care about me."

"So that's a yes, then?"

"Of course it is!"

"Awesome! So I'll see you at my place anytime Saturday afternoon, alright?"

"It's a sure thing!"

"Don't forget to bring some of the old goods down, alright?"

"I won't!"

"Okay. Bye!"

"Bye!"

She hung up and started to pack up her belongings, even though she had a good three days to do it.

Elsewhere, a Mokuroku Matsu picked up his phone.

"Miharu, I'm not going to go out with you, alright?" he sighed after picking up the phone.

"I know there're plenty of other guys to go for!" Miharu giggled. "Can you get either Suru or Tamaru on the line?"

Rolling his eyes, Matsu complied and got his sisters on the phone.

"Miharu!" two voices said in unison.

"Hey girls, what's up?"

"Just talking to you on speaker," Tamaru laughed.

"Oh? Sweet! Anyway, I was wondering if you girls wanted to come on over this weekend for a slumber party. I know Kawa's coming, and I still have to ring Hana's number, so can you come?" Miharu said in one breath.

"Anything to get away from our darling brother," Suru scowled as she adjusted her glasses.

"Good! I'll see you anytime on Saturday afternoon. Don't forget to bring down the old goodies!"

"Are you serious? That might take a moving truck to bring over!"

"Uhh…I meant just the NA stuff," Miharu laughed embarrassedly.

"Oh. That isn't so bad then. We'll see you there. Bye!" Suru answered and hung up.

Hana, on the contrary, was the really shy one, but _did_ end up getting more confident throughout her adolescent years. She too agreed to the slumber party.

When Saturday finally rolled along, the girls were all busy squealing in their houses over what they could and could not bring over to Miharu's place. After much fussing, they just decided to bring _everything_, which would have caused quite a storage problem if the Ashioto residence wasn't nearly the size of a mansion.

After eating some ordered in pizza, they started to watch some fluffy romance movies. Halfway through, Miharu decided that they should all pull out their boxes of memories at the Ninja Academy.

"Didn't we all have scrapbooks somewhere?" she asked the other girls as she dragged a huge trunk down the stairs to one of the several television rooms.

"I found mine!" Kawa squealed. "Remember Uchiha Itachi? He was _gorgeous!_"

"That he really was," Suru laughed. "Remember his sister, Tsumi? She was really pretty—"

"—and brave—"

"—and strong—"

"—and smart," Hana finished off.

"She was good at everything! They _both_ were," Tamaru sighed.

"Plus they were perfect for each other," Suru piped in, though earning childish glares from Miharu and Kawa.

"That's not true!" they screeched before the five of them burst out into a fit of giggles.

"Oh my gosh, that's so _cute!_" Kawa wailed and pointed at the television screen where the main female and male characters started making out.

"Hey, he's pretty hot," Miharu sighed.

"Sasuke," Hana said suddenly; "their little brother! I saw him on the street the other day with that really hot Hatake-san!"

"Isn't he his sensei?"

"Hai!"

"Let's go spy on him," Miharu said devilishly.

"Wait, _what?_" Tamaru laughed nervously.

"Sasuke—cute—boy—visit—now!"

"Are you crazy? It's almost midnight!"

"So?"

"_So?_ We aren't leaving this house at midnight. That and there are Akatsuki members on the loose! We can't go out at a time like this, Miharu! You must be insane! Plus, Sasuke's only twelve, I think. Are you a pedophile!"

"Of course I'm not, silly. Besides, he lives pretty close to here; he's just a street down. Come on, let's go!"

"…maybe some other time…right now I feel like drooling at the pictures of the ever so dazzling Itachi!"

"Good idea, Kawa!"

And so, the girls spent the rest of the night drooling over the pictures of their childhood heartthrob. Don't you feel ever so pathetic for actually reading that? _Hah._


End file.
